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 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. |
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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:
- Bolotov, I.N., I.V. Vikhrev, A.V. Kondakov, E.S. Konopleva, M.Y. Gofarov et al. 2017. New taxa of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) from a species-rich but overlooked evolutionary hotspot in Southeast Asia. Scientific Reports 7: 11573 (18 pp.).
- Graf, D.L. & K.S. Cummings. 2007. Review of the systematics and global diversity of freshwater mussel species (Bivalvia: Unionoida). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73: 291-314.
- Kondo, T. 2008. Monograph of Unionoida in Japan (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Special Publication of the Malacological Society of Japan (3): 69 pp.
- Sano, I., A. Shirai, T. Kondo & J.-I. Miyazaki. 2017. Phylogenetic relationships of Japanese Unionoida (Mollusca: Bivalvia) based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences. Journal of Water Resources and Protection 9: 493-509.
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