LUCINIDAE

Taylor, John D. & Glover, Emily A., 2006, Lucinidae (Bivalvia) - the most diverse group of chemosymbiotic molluscs, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148 (3), pp. 421-438 : 426

DIVERSITY OF LUCINIDAE

It is increasingly recognized that the family Lucinidae is much more diverse than previous assessments. Using genera as a proxy for morphological disparity and the revision in the ‘Bivalve Treatise’ ( Chavan, 1969) as a starting point, 44 valid genera containing Recent species were recognized. By 2005 this had increased to 58 published genera, and another 15 new genera are in press or preparation (E. A. Glover & J. D. Taylor, unpubl. data; Cosel & Bouchet, in press) = 73; while we are aware of perhaps another 15 distinct but as yet unworked taxa = 88. This represents a doubling of the known genera since 1969. From our experience, we anticipate that there are many more undescribed taxa from mid- and deep-water environments, especially species <10 mm in size. At the specific level there is a similar unrecognized diversity. For example, amongst the larger taxa, many new species of Lucinoma are being discovered from cold seeps and oxygen minimum zones (von Cosel, in press; Oliver & Holmes, 2006). Amongst the Anodontia group from shallow water tropical habitats, we now identify 25 species compared to the possible eight we thought existed only three years ago (Taylor & Glover, 2005). Furthermore, Cosel & Bouchet (in press) are describing many new species from deeper water across the Indo-West Pacific. Additionally, upon closer study, a number of apparently well-known tropical species turn out to be complexes of similar species ( Taylor & Glover, 1997, 2002). Our current estimates suggest that there may be as many as 500 extant species of Lucinidae .