Pliocardia

Saether, Kristian P., Jingeng, Sha, Little, Crispin T. S. & Campbell, Kathleen A., 2016, New records and a new species of bivalve (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from Miocene hydrocarbon seep deposits, North Island, New Zealand, Zootaxa 4154 (1), pp. 1-26 : 13

cf. Pliocardia sp.

( Fig. 7 )

Pliocardia ? sp. Amano et al., 2014: 423 ; fig. 2A–C.

Material. Five specimens from Puketawa (Y16/f0580), medium sized, TM9236–9240, UOA (borrowed from GNS).

Remarks. Originally described from four specimens from Moonlight North ( Amano et al. 2014), five specimens from Puketawa are added to the distribution data. Amano et al. (2014) mentioned the presence of cf. Pliocardia sp. at Puketawa, but no formal catalogue data were supplied. Generic placement remains tentative before more details of the external shell are observed, as well as the left valve dentition. The fossil New Zealand seep species appears to be more or less intermediate in shell outline between the two modern New Zealand seep Isorropodon species. However, the New Zealand fossil seep species is considerably larger than modern New Zealand seep Isorropodon (cf. Lewis & Marshall 1996), attaining a maximum length of over 32 mm and height of over 27 mm.

Figures

FIGURE 7. cf. Pliocardia sp. from Puketawa, specimen TM 2939. Scale bar is 7 mm. 1. Anterior view. 2. Lateral view of left valve. 3. Lateral view of right valve. 4. Dorsal view.