Crassatina senecta
| Crassatina senecta Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Carditida |
| Family: | Crassatellidae |
| Genus: | Crassatina |
| Species: | C. senecta
|
| Binomial name | |
| Crassatina senecta (A. W. B. Powell, 1931)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Crassatina senecta is a species of bivalve, a marine mollusc in the family Crassatellidae.[1] Fossils of the species date the Pleistocene in New Zealand between 3 and 1.63 million years ago, found in deposits which represent areas of deep water.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell ovate-subtrigonal, about the same size as the Recent New Zealand bellula, but more massive and less equilateral. Sculpture consisting of coarse, regular, concentric folds, diminishing in strength towards the posterior end, but nowhere flexed or undulating, as in the Recent species. The folds are about one and a-half per millimetre, except towards the umbo, where they are smaller and more closely spaced. They number about twenty-four in the adult shell, with interspaces about half the width of the folds. The posterior end is slightly longer than the anterior, its dorsal slope straight and descending to an indistinct subtruncation below. Hinge-plate solid and deep, with teeth arranged and formed as in bellula, but much more massive. Valve margins smooth.[2]
The holotype of the species has a height of 15 mm (0.59 in), a length of 18.5 mm (0.73 in), and a thickness of 4.75 mm (0.187 in) for a single valve.[2]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1931, using the name Talabrica senecta.[2] While the accepted name in New Zealand as of 2009 was Talabrica nummaria,[3] the World Register of Marine Species lists the accepted name as Crassatina senecta.[1] The holotype, a left valve, was collected in January 1926 by Powell from Castlepoint on the lighthouse reef in the Wairarapa, and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[4][5]
Ecology
The species lived in deep waters.[6]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in the Pleistocene, between the Mangapanian stage and the Nukumaruan stage (between 3–1.63 million years ago) in New Zealand,[3][7] including the Castlepoint Formation at Castlepoint,[4] the Konewa Formation at Pohangina,[8] the Whariki Formation near Parikino in the Whanganui District.[6]
References
- ^ a b c Crassatina senecta A. W. B. Powell, 1931 †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 17 February 2026.
- ^ a b c Powell, A. W. B. (1931). "Waitotaran Faunules of the Wanganui System and Descriptions of New Species of Mollusca from the New Zealand Pliocene". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 1: 85–112. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905938. Wikidata Q58676540. This article incorporates text from this source, which is under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- ^ a b Maxwell, P.A. (2009). "Cenozoic Mollusca". In Gordon, D.P. (ed.). New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume one. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-877257-72-8.
- ^ a b Blom, Wilma M. (2025). "Annotated Catalogue of Fossil and Extant Molluscan Types in the Auckland War Memorial Museum". Bulletin of the Auckland Museum. 22. doi:10.32912/BULLETIN/22. ISSN 1176-3213. OCLC 1550165130. Wikidata Q135397912.
- ^ "Talabrica senecta". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
- ^ a b McIntyre, Avon P.; Kamp, Peter J. J. (1998). "Late Pliocene (2.8 ‐2.4 Ma) cyclothemic shelf deposits, Parikino, Wanganui Basin, New Zealand: Lithostratigraphy and correlation of cycles". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 41 (1): 69–84. doi:10.1080/00288306.1998.9514791.
- ^ Rees, Callum; Palmer, Julie; Palmer, Alan (2018). "Plio-Pleistocene geology of the Lower Pohangina Valley, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 61 (1): 44–63. doi:10.1080/00288306.2017.1408023.
- ^ Rees, Callum; Palmer, Julie; Palmer, Alan (2018). "Gilbert-style Pleistocene fan delta reveals tectonic development of North Island axial ranges, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 61 (1): 64–78. doi:10.1080/00288306.2017.1406377.