Vermicularia spirata

Vermicularia spirata, common name the West Indian worm-shell or the West Indian wormsnail, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Turritellidae. Juveniles can move around, but larger individuals become sessile.

Vermicularia spirata

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
VermiculariaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Turritellidae
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Turritellidae
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Turritellidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 5.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 4 of 34 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 19 of 34 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 11 of 34 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 34 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–809 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.333 Mya129 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

34 occurrences of Vermicularia spirata on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

34 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

17 formations

Talparo — 10.67°N, 61.07°WGurabo — 18.73°N, 71.00°WGurabo — 19.30°N, 70.50°WGurabo — 19.45°N, 70.70°WGurabo — 19.53°N, 71.33°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WJackson Bluff — 30.43°N, 84.57°WBermont — 26.89°N, 82.01°WBermont — 26.68°N, 80.67°WChowan RIver — 35.28°N, 76.65°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 33.63°N, 79.16°WDuplin — 34.90°N, 78.05°WDuplin — 34.50°N, 79.11°WAgueguexquite — 17.58°N, 95.08°WAgueguexquite — 18.07°N, 94.32°WCaloosahatchee — 27.77°N, 82.68°WCanepatch — 33.83°N, 78.89°WHorry Clay — 34.97°N, 76.97°WDevonshire — 32.30°N, 64.75°WAnastasia — 26.65°N, 80.45°WMao — 19.67°N, 71.40°WTubará — 10.75°N, 75.00°WFort Thompson — 26.76°N, 81.44°W

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The named rock units Vermicularia spirata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vermicularia spirata and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Vermicularia spirata and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

1,175 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Vermicularia spirata, 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

16 references

Each of the 34 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. 4 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 Vermicularia spirata

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Vermicularia spirata was found in Sketchfab.

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 itVermicularia through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Philippi 1836)