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Page last updated
8 October 2019

Mussel of the Month

The October 2019 Mussel of the Month is Obovalis omiensis. Obovalis is a monotypic genus from Japan.

Obovalis
USNM 159212. Osaka [Japan] (type of Pseudodon loomisi)

Obovalis omiensis has more often been classified as a member of the genus Pseudodon sensu lato. But, that genus — as we treated it in our global checklist (Graf & Cummings, 2007) — has been split among three genera: Pseudodon s.s., Monodontina, and Bineurus (Bolotov et al., 2017). Based on the work of Kondo (2008) and Sano et al. (2017), the monotypic Obovalis is the fourth genus. We summarized some recent classification schemes in our post about Pseudodon.

We expect as more species formerly classified in Pseudodon sensu lato make it into molecular phylogenetic analyses, more splitting might be in order.

Classification:

Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Palaeoheterodonta
Order Unionoida

Superfamily UNIONOIDEA Rafinesque, 1820
Family UNIONIDAE s.s
Subfamily GONIDEINAE Ortmann, 1916
Tribe PSEUDODONTINI Frierson, 1927

Genus Obovalis Simpson, 1900

Species Obovalis omiensis (Heimburg, 1884)
[+ Pseudodon loomisi Simpson 1900]

To find out more about Obovalis and the other genera split from the Old Pseudodon, check out:
 
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