Chemosymbiotic bivalves from the mud volcanoes of the Gulf of Cadiz, NE Atlantic, with descriptions of new species of Solemyidae, Lucinidae and Vesicomyidae
Author
Olive, Graham
Author
Rodrigues, Clara F.
Author
Cunha, Marina R.
text
ZooKeys
2011
113
1
38
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.113.1402
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.113.1402
1313-2970-113-1
Thyasira vulcolutre Rodrigues & Oliver, 2008
Comments.
Thyasira vulcolutre
belongs to a group of thyasirids with relatively large shells with weakly defined posterior sulci. It was concluded that it was most similar to
Thyasira southwardae
(
Oliver and Holmes 2006b
) from the Anyas Garden site. At that time no thyasirid material had been found at cold seep sites along the West African margin. Consequently, unlike the situation for
Lucinoma
(
Cosel 2006
) and
Isorropodon
(
Cosel and Salas 2001
,
Cosel and Olu 2008
) no further biogeographic comparisons could be made. Recently we were able to examine a thyasirid (Fig. 8
E-F
) from the REGAB site (courtesy of Karine Olu) and although it superficially
resembles
Thyasira vulcolutre
it significantly differs in having a minutely spicate periostracum (Oliver in prep).
Thyasira striata
Sturany, 1896 has long been known from deep water in the eastern Mediterranean but was recently re-discovered at cold seep sites (
Olu-Le Roy et al. 2004
). Small specimens resemble
Thyasira flexuosa
but larger examples (Fig. 8
G-H
) are very tumid with prominent lunule and deep posterior sulci quite unlike
Thyasira vulcolutre
.
These new data suggest that those thyasirids closely associated with active cold seeps have restricted ranges within the eastern Atlantic/Mediterranean region.