Spumellaria

Spumellaria is an order of radiolarians in the class Polycystinea. They are ameboid protists appearing in abundance in the world's oceans, possessing a radially-symmetrical silica (opal) skeleton that has ensured their preservation in fossil records. They are holoplanktonic, meaning they spend their whole lives classified as plankton. Spumellaria are globally distributed and a big part of our ocean’s silica biogeochemical cycle. Before diatoms, they were the main contributors to siliceous ocean sediments. They belong among the oldest Polycystine organisms, dating back to the lower Cambrian. Their skeletons are easily preserved and therefore are frequently used as tools in paleo-environmental reconstruction studies.

Spumellaria

Picturepest · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PolycystineaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 468 million years on record.

The record covers at least 473.8 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesOrdovician — about 17 of 12000 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 12000 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 1 of 12000 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 163 of 12000 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 44 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 289 of 12000 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1991 of 12000 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1691 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1411 of 12000 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 2680 of 12000 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3010 of 12000 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 661 of 12000 occurrencesPaleocene — about 7 of 12000 occurrencesEocene — about 25 of 12000 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesMiocene — about 5 of 12000 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 12000 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 12000 occurrences497–480 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences480–463 Mya — about 5 occurrences463–447 Mya — about 9 occurrences447–430 Mya — about 4 occurrences331–314 Mya — about 1 occurrence281–265 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences265–248 Mya — about 184 occurrences248–232 Mya — about 370 occurrences232–215 Mya — about 556 occurrences215–199 Mya — about 1858 occurrences199–182 Mya — about 1015 occurrences182–166 Mya — about 1246 occurrences166–149 Mya — about 1255 occurrences149–132 Mya — about 3231 occurrences132–116 Mya — about 1369 occurrences116–99 Mya — about 259 occurrences99–83 Mya — about 552 occurrences83–66 Mya — about 44 occurrences66–50 Mya — about 17 occurrences50–33 Mya — about 15 occurrences17–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences473.8 Mya5.333 Mya497 Mya0 Mya

12,000+ occurrences of Spumellaria on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12,000 occurrences read

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. The read hit its cap, so every figure above is a floor and the shares are of the occurrences read. More on what this infers.

Found in

at least 111 formations

Maiolica — 43.26°N, 12.81°EMaiolica — 43.13°N, 13.17°EMaiolica — 44.00°N, 14.00°EMaiolica — 43.35°N, 12.71°EMaiolica — 43.48°N, 12.72°EMaiolica — 45.64°N, 9.95°ESandilands — 53.91°N, 133.15°WSandilands — 52.77°N, 131.56°WSandilands — 52.77°N, 131.55°WSandilands — 53.42°N, 132.27°WSandilands — 53.17°N, 132.09°WSandilands — 52.78°N, 132.10°WSandilands — 52.78°N, 131.96°WSandilands — 53.03°N, 131.88°WRail Cabin Argillite — 44.08°N, 119.43°WTaman — 21.28°N, 98.82°WAmeghino — 64.47°S, 58.97°WAmeghino — 63.97°S, 58.17°WOberalmer Schichten — 47.68°N, 13.28°EOberalmer Schichten — 47.62°N, 13.25°EOberalmer Schichten — 47.70°N, 13.07°EOberalmer Schichten — 47.73°N, 13.03°EScaglia Bianca — 43.48°N, 12.72°EScaglia Bianca — 43.38°N, 12.62°EWahrah — 22.97°N, 57.06°EWahrah — 22.73°N, 57.40°EJosephine — 41.87°N, 123.83°WJosephine — 42.00°N, 123.76°WPhantom Creek — 53.42°N, 132.27°WHocakoey — 36.92°N, 31.64°EUnit 2 — 35.05°N, 120.17°WSnowshoe — 44.00°N, 119.50°WSnowshoe — 44.13°N, 119.12°WCzajakowa Radiolarite — 49.37°N, 20.62°ECzajakowa Radiolarite — 49.25°N, 20.92°ECzajakowa Radiolarite — 49.17°N, 20.97°EFonzaso — 45.88°N, 8.64°EFonzaso — 46.05°N, 11.88°EAnchorage — 62.60°S, 61.17°WRosso Ammonitico Medio — 38.00°N, 12.83°EDalong — 23.32°N, 105.86°EDalong — 22.27°N, 107.69°EArnager Limestone — 55.05°N, 14.77°EScisti a Fucoidi — 43.48°N, 12.72°ESan Hipolito — 26.00°N, 111.00°WSchrambach-Schichten — 47.73°N, 13.03°ERosso ad Aptici — 45.88°N, 8.64°EGraham Island — 53.40°N, 132.27°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Spumellaria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. The read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 87 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,749 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

999 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 132 sites for Spumellaria, and this reads 132 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

at least 141 references

Each of the 12,000 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. That read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 129 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Spumellaria

Credit
Picturepest
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPolycystinea through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ehrenberg 1875)