Myrtea maoria
| Myrtea maoria Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Lucinida |
| Family: | Lucinidae |
| Genus: | Myrtea |
| Species: | †M. maoria
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Myrtea maoria A. W. B. Powell, 1935
| |
Myrtea maoria is an extinct species of bivalve, a marine mollusc, in the family Lucinidae.[1][2] Fossils of the species date to early Miocene strata of the west coast of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell fairly large, oval, almost equilateral, moderately inflated. Beaks low, rather small. Lunule and escutcheon long, narrow, slightly depressed and bordered by a thin ridge which is rendered somewhat serrate by the surmounting and termination of the concentric sculpture. The concentric sculpture is in the form of prominent widely spaced slightly lamellose, rounded upcurved ridges, about four in five millimetres over the lower half of the shell. The interstices are smooth except for occasional faint concentric growth lines, and radial sculpture is entirely absent. Anterior and posterior dorsal areas depressed, causing the traversing concentric ridges to cant a little and to appear slightly flatter and broader as they approach the dorsal edge.[3]
The holotype of the species measures 17 mm (0.67 in) in height and 21 mm (0.83 in) in length.[3] The species can be identified sue to its more oval outline than other members of Pteromyrtea.[3]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1935.[3] The holotype was collected at an unknown date prior to 1935 from between Powell Bay and Bartrum Bay, approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) south of Muriwai, Auckland Region (then more commonly known as Motutara), and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[4][5]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in early Miocene strata of the Nihotupu Formation of New Zealand, on the west coast of the Waitākere Ranges of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.[4] The deposits of the Nihotupu Formation in the western Waitākere Ranges where fossils of the species have been found are mid-bathyal 800–2,000 m (2,600–6,600 ft).[6]
References
- ^ Myrtea maoria A. W. B. Powell, 1935 †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 20 January 2026.
- ^ 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. 236. ISBN 978-1-877257-72-8.
- ^ a b c d Powell, A. W. B. (1935). "Tertiary Mollusca from Motutara, West Coast, Auckland". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 1: 327–340. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905961. Wikidata Q58676576. This article incorporates text from this source, which is under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Myrtea maoria". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
- ^ Eagle, Michael K. (December 1999). "A new Early Miocene Pseudarchaster (Asteroidea: Echinodermata) from New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 42 (4): 551–556. doi:10.1080/00288306.1999.9514861. ISSN 0028-8306. Wikidata Q104119200.