Teredinidae

Shipworms, teredo worms or simply teredo are a group of xylophagic marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae that consume wood submerged in saltwater. Their elongated, vermiform appearance makes their classification as bivalves not obvious, and sailors generally refer to them as "worms," a term found in the English shipworm and German Schiffsbohrwurm. However, taxonomically shipworms are more akin to clams.

Teredinidae

United States Geological Survey · Public Domain · 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
PholadoideaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
boringPBDB
Motility
stationaryPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 192 million years on record.

The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 199.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 481 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 481 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 481 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 481 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 16 of 481 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 35 of 481 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 77 of 481 occurrencesEocene — about 112 of 481 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 69 of 481 occurrencesMiocene — about 126 of 481 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 34 of 481 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 481 occurrences203–197 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences197–190 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences170–163 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences163–156 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences149–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–136 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences129–122 Mya — about 3 occurrences122–115 Mya — about 5 occurrences115–109 Mya — about 5 occurrences109–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–95 Mya — about 10 occurrences95–88 Mya — about 4 occurrences88–81 Mya — about 4 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 5 occurrences75–68 Mya — about 10 occurrences68–61 Mya — about 45 occurrences61–54 Mya — about 46 occurrences54–47 Mya — about 37 occurrences47–41 Mya — about 28 occurrences41–34 Mya — about 37 occurrences34–27 Mya — about 49 occurrences27–20 Mya — about 40 occurrences20–14 Mya — about 63 occurrences14–6.8 Mya — about 40 occurrences6.8–0 Mya — about 48 occurrences192.9 Mya11.7 ka203 Mya0 Mya

481 occurrences of Teredinidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

481 occurrences

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. More on what this infers.

Found in

157 formations

Cannonball — 46.53°N, 101.14°WCannonball — 46.83°N, 100.93°WCannonball — 46.53°N, 100.67°WCannonball — 46.66°N, 100.29°WCannonball — 46.97°N, 100.93°WCannonball — 47.07°N, 100.92°WCannonball — 46.86°N, 100.98°WCannonball — 46.81°N, 101.02°WCannonball — 46.82°N, 101.06°WCannonball — 46.47°N, 100.93°WCannonball — 46.44°N, 100.89°WCannonball — 46.13°N, 100.80°WCannonball — 46.44°N, 101.17°WCannonball — 46.68°N, 101.51°WCannonball — 46.24°N, 101.33°WCannonball — 46.26°N, 101.64°WCannonball — 46.29°N, 101.71°WChipola — 30.46°N, 85.16°WChipola — 30.26°N, 85.17°WChipola — 30.45°N, 85.16°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.63°N, 85.59°WSuwannee Limestone — 28.50°N, 82.69°WSuwannee Limestone — 28.20°N, 82.18°WSuwannee Limestone — 28.56°N, 82.39°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.28°N, 83.71°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.40°N, 83.17°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.12°N, 83.60°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.38°N, 83.80°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.37°N, 83.94°WSuwannee Limestone — 30.17°N, 83.96°WSuwannee Limestone — 28.90°N, 82.59°WYorktown — 37.22°N, 76.93°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.96°WYorktown — 35.38°N, 77.99°WYorktown — 37.17°N, 76.77°WYorktown — 37.25°N, 76.50°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.63°WYorktown — 37.15°N, 76.74°WCulebra — 9.05°N, 79.65°WCulebra — 9.76°N, 79.68°WCulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°WCulebra — 9.13°N, 79.62°WClayton — 31.90°N, 86.88°WClayton — 31.90°N, 87.07°WClayton — 30.71°N, 84.86°WClayton — 31.93°N, 86.70°WClayton — 31.95°N, 86.71°WClayton — 31.98°N, 87.22°WClayton — 31.99°N, 87.13°WClayton — 37.18°N, 89.07°WLlajas — 34.31°N, 118.67°WLlajas — 34.32°N, 118.65°WLondon Clay — 50.83°N, 0.78°WLondon Clay — 50.89°N, 1.28°WLondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.23°N, 0.85°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°EReklaw — 30.88°N, 95.38°WReklaw — 30.01°N, 97.26°WReklaw — 30.80°N, 96.72°WCook Mountain — 31.09°N, 95.95°WCook Mountain — 29.95°N, 97.14°WCook Mountain — 30.62°N, 96.56°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.52°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.68°WMoodys Branch — 32.33°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.67°N, 92.89°WLellinge Greensand — 55.71°N, 12.60°ELellinge Greensand — 55.48°N, 10.47°EMoneague — 18.32°N, 77.18°WMoneague — 18.33°N, 77.13°WMoneague — 18.37°N, 77.38°WMoneague — 18.08°N, 77.00°WMoneague — 18.03°N, 76.75°WGhibirti — 11.03°N, 51.03°EGhibirti — 10.80°N, 51.05°EGhibirti — 11.00°N, 51.07°EGatun — 9.35°N, 79.85°WGatun — 9.26°N, 79.91°WCollazo Shale — 18.34°N, 66.99°WCollazo Shale — 17.97°N, 66.91°WMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.17°N, 2.70°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.15°N, 2.57°EWoodbine — 32.86°N, 97.06°WWoodbine — 33.71°N, 96.46°WWoodbine — 33.66°N, 96.45°WWoodbine — 33.67°N, 96.34°WWoodbine — 33.87°N, 95.57°WNanjemoy — 38.51°N, 77.02°WNanjemoy — 38.78°N, 76.87°WNanjemoy — 38.82°N, 76.75°WNanjemoy — 37.32°N, 77.28°WAquia — 38.82°N, 76.75°WAquia — 38.70°N, 76.97°WAquia — 38.46°N, 77.27°WAquia — 38.58°N, 77.12°WAquia — 38.27°N, 77.18°WQom — 31.52°N, 52.74°EQom — 32.95°N, 52.14°EQom — 33.78°N, 51.73°EMerlinleigh Sandstone — 24.33°S, 115.19°EMartinez — 38.00°N, 122.20°WPorters Creek — 31.90°N, 86.88°WPorters Creek — 31.99°N, 87.29°WPorters Creek — 31.97°N, 87.20°W

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The named rock units Teredinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 133 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 78 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Teredinidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Teredinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,962 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 365 sites for Teredinidae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

170 references

Each of the 481 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. 158 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 Teredinidae

Credit
United States Geological Survey
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Teredinidae indet. · MCZ:Mala:396633

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPholadoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1815