Vermetidae

The Vermetidae, the worm snails or worm shells, are a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Littorinimorpha. The shells of species in the family Vermetidae are extremely irregular, and do not resemble the average snail shell, hence the common name "worm shells" or "worm snails".

Vermetidae

Chad King (SIMoN / MBNMS) · 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
Also called
worm shellPBDB
Sits inside
VermetoideaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 339 million years on record.

The record covers at least 339.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 346.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 3 of 951 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 951 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 951 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 951 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 951 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 951 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 951 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 2 of 951 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 27 of 951 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 951 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 27 of 951 occurrencesEocene — about 72 of 951 occurrencesOligocene — about 13 of 951 occurrencesMiocene — about 333 of 951 occurrencesPliocene — about 180 of 951 occurrencesPleistocene — about 261 of 951 occurrences354–342 Mya — about 2 occurrences342–330 Mya — about 1 occurrence177–165 Mya — about 1 occurrence165–153 Mya — about 3 occurrences153–141 Mya — about 2 occurrences141–130 Mya — about 9 occurrences130–118 Mya — about 3 occurrences118–106 Mya — about 4 occurrences106–94 Mya — about 10 occurrences94–83 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences83–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–59 Mya — about 19 occurrences59–47 Mya — about 29 occurrences47–35 Mya — about 51 occurrences35–24 Mya — about 17 occurrences24–12 Mya — about 121 occurrences12–0 Mya — about 675 occurrences339.9 Mya11.7 ka354 Mya0 Mya

951 occurrences of Vermetidae 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

951 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

184 formations

Gurabo — 19.53°N, 71.20°WGurabo — 19.58°N, 71.25°WGurabo — 19.48°N, 70.98°WGurabo — 19.45°N, 70.70°WGurabo — 19.40°N, 70.72°WGurabo — 19.58°N, 71.05°WGurabo — 19.30°N, 71.67°WGurabo — 19.30°N, 70.50°WGurabo — 19.53°N, 71.33°WGurabo — 18.93°N, 71.62°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WGatun — 9.38°N, 79.82°WGatun — 9.04°N, 80.65°WGatun — 9.34°N, 79.80°WGatun — 9.34°N, 79.89°WCercado — 19.45°N, 71.18°WCercado — 19.30°N, 71.67°WCercado — 19.52°N, 71.28°WCercado — 18.93°N, 71.62°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.73°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.80°N, 118.17°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.94°WTubará — 10.99°N, 74.95°WTubará — 10.80°N, 75.02°WTubará — 10.40°N, 75.51°WCayo Agua — 9.18°N, 82.05°WCayo Agua — 9.17°N, 82.04°WReklaw — 30.11°N, 97.32°WReklaw — 30.01°N, 97.26°WReklaw — 30.80°N, 96.72°WYorktown — 37.27°N, 76.57°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.51°WYorktown — 34.90°N, 78.05°WYorktown — 37.15°N, 76.74°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.63°WPico — 34.36°N, 118.56°WPico — 34.43°N, 118.70°WGosport Sand — 31.52°N, 87.90°WGosport Sand — 31.54°N, 87.52°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WOak Grove — 30.92°N, 86.57°WRio Gurabo — 19.50°N, 71.18°WLomita Marl — 33.75°N, 118.30°WLomita Marl — 33.74°N, 118.29°WMare — 10.00°N, 64.00°WMare — 10.00°N, 71.00°WMare — 10.64°N, 64.11°WJackson Bluff — 30.43°N, 84.57°WPirabas — 0.80°S, 47.13°WPirabas — 0.48°S, 48.17°WPirabas — 2.58°S, 43.38°WPirabas — 2.41°S, 44.42°WDiscovery Point — 29.00°N, 118.27°WDiscovery Point — 29.10°N, 118.25°WDiscovery Point — 28.97°N, 118.22°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMoodys Branch — 32.00°N, 92.08°WMoodys Branch — 31.82°N, 92.33°WMoodys Branch — 31.67°N, 92.89°WMoodys Branch — 31.78°N, 92.49°WMoodys Branch — 32.28°N, 90.18°WMoodys Branch — 31.60°N, 92.80°WKincaid — 29.21°N, 99.79°WKincaid — 31.74°N, 96.55°WKincaid — 29.35°N, 98.99°WKincaid — 31.29°N, 96.72°WCastilletes — 11.95°N, 71.32°WCastilletes — 11.96°N, 71.26°WCaloosahatchee — 26.89°N, 82.01°WCaloosahatchee — 26.96°N, 81.99°WCaloosahatchee — 27.77°N, 82.68°WAraya — 10.82°N, 64.18°WAraya — 10.63°N, 64.30°WShoal River — 30.72°N, 86.12°WShoal River — 30.65°N, 86.04°WShoal River — 30.63°N, 86.17°WShoal River — 30.69°N, 86.65°W

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The named rock units Vermetidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 160 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 259 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vermetidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Vermetidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

4,231 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 423 sites for Vermetidae, 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

252 references

Each of the 951 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. 240 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 Vermetidae

Credit
Chad King (SIMoN / MBNMS)
Licence
Public Domain
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 itVermetoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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