Neotrigonia is a genus of living Seawater clams, in the family Trigoniidae, which otherwise consists only of fossil genera. For a long time the entire family was thought to be long extinct, but a living species that is now placed in this genus was discovered in 1802. At that time it was assigned to the fossil genus Trigonia. Currently, according to the World Register of Marine Species, 8 extant species in this genus are recognized.
Discovery of the genus
Until the beginning of the 19th century, no living species in this superfamily had ever been discovered, although numerous fossil species were known. The superfamily was well known as fossils from the Devonian to the
Cretaceous Period. In 1802, however, François Péron discovered a living species in waters off the coast of
Tasmania. In 1804,
Lamarck named that species
Trigonia margaritacea, and Cossmann renamed the genus
Neotrigonia in 1912. Today, eight living species are known to exist, all of which are found off the coast of Australia and Tasmania.
Neotrigonia probably evolved from
Eotrigonia (
Eocene to
Miocene) during the Miocene epoch.
[Francis, A.O. 2000. The Palaeobiology of the European Jurassic Trigoniidae. Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, 323pp.]
Species
Species within the genus
Neotrigonia include:
-
Neotrigonia bednalli (Verco, 1907)
-
Neotrigonia gemma Iredale, 1924
-
Neotrigonia jacksoni Morrison, 2011
-
Neotrigonia kaiyomaruae Habe & Nomoto, 1976
-
Neotrigonia lamarckii (Gray, 1838)
-
Neotrigonia margaritacea (Lamarck, 1804)
-
Neotrigonia strangei (A. Adams, 1854)
-
Neotrigonia uniophora (Gray in Jukes, 1847)
Synonym
-
Neotrigonia horia Cotton, 195: synonym of Neotrigonia bednalli (Verco, 1907)
External links
