Theonellidae

Theonellidae is a family of sponges belonging to the order Tetractinellida, which was first described by Robert von Lendenfeld in 1903.

Theonellidae

Carvalho FC, Cárdenas P, Ríos P, Cristobo J, Rapp HT, Xavier JR. 2020. Rock sponges (lithistid Demospongiae) of the N… · CC BY 4.0 · 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
TetracladinaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Lithistida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Lithistida
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Lithistida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Porifera
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lithistida

Time the record covers

At least 131 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 136 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 28 of 136 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 89 of 136 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 136 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 136 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 136 occurrencesMiocene — about 10 of 136 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 136 occurrences152–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 2 occurrences132–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 9 occurrences118–113 Mya — about 11 occurrences113–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–103 Mya — about 3 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 4 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 6 occurrences93–88 Mya — about 13 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 28 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 28 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 7 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences63–59 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences59–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences14–9.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.3–4.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences143.1 Mya11.63 Mya152 Mya4 Mya

136 occurrences of Theonellidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

136 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

12 formations

Neuburger Weiß — 48.73°N, 11.18°EIlsenburg — 51.90°N, 10.67°EIlsenburg — 51.83°N, 10.78°EUpper Greensand — 51.21°N, 2.18°WUpper Greensand — 51.34°N, 1.76°WAbenaki — 43.69°N, 60.83°WCastle Hayne — 35.25°N, 78.07°WMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°ETutuiri Greensand — 43.75°S, 176.68°WLagos-Portimao — 37.17°N, 8.22°WChiampo — 45.53°N, 11.25°EObukhov — 48.37°N, 35.41°EObukhow — 48.80°N, 34.29°ESiniscola Marl — 40.59°N, 9.69°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Theonellidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 106 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Theonellidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Theonellidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

677 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 41 sites for Theonellidae, and this reads all 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

23 references

Each of the 136 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. 11 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 content1

Picture of Theonellidae

Credit
Carvalho FC, Cárdenas P, Ríos P, Cristobo J, Rapp HT, Xavier JR. 2020. Rock sponges (lithistid Demospongiae) of the N…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itTetracladina through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lendenfeld 1904