Chamelea striatula

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Chamelea striatula
Left and right valve of Chamelea striatula, inside and outside view
Left and right valve of Chamelea striatula, inside and outside view
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Venerida
Family: Veneridae
Genus: Chamelea
Species:
C. striatula
Binomial name
Chamelea striatula
(da Costa, 1778)[1]

Chamelea striatula, the striped venus clam, is a marine bivalve mollusc of the family Veneridae which inhabits the northern shores of Europe.

Description[edit]

The valves of Chamelea striatula are robust and not very convex, with a beak which is prominently bent towards the shell's anterior and sits behind a clearly delimited lunula. The valves appear nearly triangular: The beak sits anterior to the center of the valve, and the dorsal margin behind it runs with a very slight curve all the way down to the lower margin of the shell, giving the posterior end a point. They commonly grow to about 3 cm in size.[2] The ligament is inset, and both valves' hinges have three cardinal teeth but no lateral teeth. The pallial sinus is triangular and very small.

The interior lower margin is finely crenelated and the outside of the shell is marked by many regular concentric ridges.[3][4]

Well preserved or live specimens typically have a pattern of darker rays or zigzags on a lighter background, and are cream coloured or brown with a lighter inside.[3]

Distribution[edit]

The bivalve can be found from Norway to Morocco, and is known also from Madeira and the Canary Islands. Its range extends into the Mediterranean, where it coexists with the slightly larger common venus clam (Chamelea gallina).[5] The two live sympatrically on the coast of Algarve, in the Gulf of Cádiz, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Alboran Sea.[6]

Fossil valves are common in the North Sea, where they are likely not older than the Holocene or Pleistocene.[7][8]

Taxonomy[edit]

There are two living species in the genus Chamelea,[9] C. striatula and C. gallina, whose independence from each other was supported by genetic evidence in 1994[6] and 2017.[9] Generally, C. gallina is thought of as a Mediterranean and C. striatula as an Atlantic species[10]

In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Linné named Venus gallina based on the Mediterranean species, not accounting for the presence of an extremely similar venus clam on the northern coasts of Europe. Many authors quickly coined names for this overlooked species and its many slight morphological varieties, most notably Da Costa's Pectunculus striatulus (1778),[11] which today is the basis of record for Chamelea striatula. Other notable obsolete names include Pennant's rugosa (1777),[12] technically the first one to be coined, and Montagu's laminosa (1808),[13] which describes a deep water variety with almost lamellose ridges[4]

As was convention at the time,[14] British conchologists paid attention practically exclusively to the animals' shells, and rarely to the animal itself. Only in 1853 did Forbes and Hanley[4] describe the most reliable way to distinguish striatula from gallina: the former's siphonal tubes are fully joined, while the latter's are separate and much shorter. The characteristic traits of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean form were often understood to form a continuum, which made their separation a matter of opinion[15][10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Chamelea striatula (da Costa, 1778)". Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
  2. ^ Nordsieck, Fritz (1969). Die europäischen Meeresmuscheln (Bivalvia) Vom Eismeer bis Kapverden, Mittelmeer und Schwarzes Meer [The marine bivalves of Europe] (in German). Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag. p. 115.
  3. ^ a b Chenu, Jean-Charles (1846). Bibliothèque conchyliologique: Coquilles Britanniques [Conchyliological Library: British seashells] (in French). Vol. 4. Paris: A. Franck. p. 49. OCLC 17278652.
  4. ^ a b c Forbes, Edward; Hanley, Sylvanus Charles Thorp (1853). A history of British Mollusca and their shells. Vol. 1. London: John Van Voorst. pp. 408–415. OCLC 8654948.
  5. ^ Rueda, Jose; Salas, Carmen; Gofas, Serge (2000). "A molluscan community from coastal bioclastic bottoms in the Strait of Gibraltar area". Iberus: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Malacología. 18 (18): 95––123.
  6. ^ a b Backeljau, Thierry; Bouchet, Philippe; Gofas, Serge; De Bruyn, Luc (1994). "Genetic variation, systematics and distribution of the venerid clam Chamelea gallina". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 74 (1) (published 2009): 211–223. Bibcode:1994JMBUK..74..211B. doi:10.1017/S0025315400035773. ISSN 1469-7769. S2CID 85674747.
  7. ^ Van Regteren Altena, Carel Octavius (1937). Bijdrage tot de kennis der fossiele, subfossiele en recente mollusken, die op de Nederlandsche stranden aanspoelen, en hunner verspreiding [Contribution to the knowledge of fossil, sub-fossil and recent molluscs which wash ashore on Dutch beaches and their distribution] (Dissertation) (in Dutch). Rotterdam: D. Van Sijn en Zonen: Amsterdam. p. 81.
  8. ^ Janssen, Adrianus Willem; Peeters, G. A. (1984). "De fossiele schelpen van de Nederlandse stranden en zeegaten, tweede serie, 8". Basteria (in Dutch). 48 (4/5): 129. ISSN 0005-6219.
  9. ^ a b García-Souto, Daniel; Qarkaxhija, Vesa; Pasantes, Juan J. (2017). "Resolving the Taxonomic Status of Chamelea gallina and C. striatula (Veneridae, Bivalvia): A Combined Molecular Cytogenetic and Phylogenetic Approach". BioMed Research International. 2017: 1. doi:10.1155/2017/7638790. ISSN 2314-6141. PMC 5438835. PMID 28555195.
  10. ^ a b Fischer-Piette, Édouard; Vukadinovič, Dragojla (1977). "Suite des révisions des veneridae (Moll. Lamellibr.) Chioninae, Samaranginae et complément aux vénus" [Continuation of the revisions of the veneridae (Moll. Lamellibr.) Chioninae, Samaranginae and addition to the group venus]. Mémoires du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (in French). 106 (1): 34–37.
  11. ^ Mendes da Costa, Emanuel (1778). Historia naturalis testaceorum Britanniæ, or, The British conchology : containing the descriptions and other particulars of natural history of the shells of Great Britain and Ireland : illustrated with figures, in English and in French. London: Printed for the author, and sold by Millan, B. White, Elmsley, and Robson. pp. 191–192.
  12. ^ Pennant, Thomas (1777). British zoology. Vol. 4. London: Benj. White. p. 95. OCLC 1962161.
  13. ^ Montagu, George (1808). Supplement to Testacea Britannica with additional plates. S. Woolmer, Forge Street, Exeter. pp. 38–40. OCLC 230717662.
  14. ^ Fleming, John (1842). Mollusca. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. p. 335. OCLC 17848132.
  15. ^ Jeffreys, John Gwyn (1863). British conchology, or, An account of the Mollusca which now inhabit the British Isles and the surrounding seas. Vol. 2. London: John Van Voorst. pp. 344–348. OCLC 7599508.
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