Kleemann, Karl
Lithophaga
Sign in to saveLithophaga, the date mussels, are a genus of medium-sized marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Some of the earliest fossil Lithophaga shells have been found in Mesozoic rocks from the Alps and from Vancouver Island.
Species
date mussels
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumMollusca
- ClassBivalvia
- OrderMytilida
- FamilyMytilidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 1,882
- With media
- 110
- Family
- Mytilidae
- Collections
- RBINS-SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE, SDNHM, LACM, UF, PRI
- Recorded in
- New Zealand, United States, Spain, Cabo Verde, Portugal
Wikidata facts
Show 5 more facts
- start time
- 225000000-
- Commons category
- Lithophaga
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon name
- Lithophaga
- topic's main category
- Category:Lithophaga
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- Species
- References
Lithophaga, the date mussels, are a genus of medium-sized marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Some of the earliest fossil Lithophaga shells have been found in Mesozoic rocks from the Alps and from Vancouver Island.
The shells of species in this genus are long and narrow with parallel sides. The animals bore into stone or coral rock with the help of pallial gland secretions, hence the systematic name Lithophaga, which means "stone-eater". Their club-shaped borings are given the trace fossil name Gastrochaenolites.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lithophaga” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.