Nuculidae (Bivalvia) in the Cape Melville Formation, King George Island, Antarctica, with an overview of the bivalve fauna

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: Whittle, Rowan J., Quaglio, Fernanda, Crame, J. Alistair, Linse, Katrin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2012
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; King George Island; Cape Melville; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20594/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20594/1/displayFulltext.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102012000454

Nuculid bivalves of the Cape Melville Formation (Early Miocene, King George Island) are reviewed. Ten bivalve taxa are listed from the formation in the families Nuculidae (two species), Sareptidae, Malletiidae, Limopsidae (two species), Limidae, Pectinidae, Hiatellidae, and Periplomatidae. The Nuculidae consist of two species of Leionucula Quenstedt, 1930. One of these, L. melvilleana n. sp., is described and the other consists of the two species named previously by Anelli et al. (2006), which are demonstrated to be synonymous and are assigned to the species Leionucula frigida (Anelli, Rocha-Campos, Santos, Perinotto & Quaglio 2006). This assemblage, dominated by protobranchs (89% of specimens), is a typical fauna of offshore soft substrates, with a few specimens transported from hard substrates nearby. The diversity of Nuculidae has decreased in the Antarctic region through the Cenozoic.