Small Nuculidae (Bivalvia) with functional primary hinge in the adults

Submitted by admin on
SERGE GOFAS
CARMEN SALAS
(1996)
Volume
35
Part
5
Page from
427

Two paedomorphic species of the family Nuculidae are described from the Western Mediterranean and the Canary Islands respectively. They have an adult size closc to 1 mm and maintain a functional set of 9—12 primary teeth, jointly with a small number of the usual taxodont teeth of the nuculids. The larger species Nucula nucleus and others have lost such teeth at the same size.
The two new species have a smooth ventral margin, a character shared with juveniles of all species with a crenulated margin in adult stage. The value of this character at the generic level is discussed; the new species are found to share more characters with Nucula s. str. than with larger species with a smooth margin in the adult stage currently classified as Ennucula, and thus are provisionally retained in the genus Nucula.

Keywords
Taxonomy
Nuculidae
Mediterranean
Canary Islands
paedomorphosis.