Morphometric and systematic study on threeAcanthocardia species from the MediterraneanPleistocene (Mollusca, Bivalvia, Cardiidae)

摘要

The cardiids Acanthocardia echinata (Linnaeus, 1758), A. deshayesii (Payrau-deau, 1826) and A. lunulata (Seguenza, 1879) co-occur in the MediterraneanPleistocene and are closely similar to each other, even partially overlapping inshell morphology. Of these, only A. echinata is fairly well known. Acanthocardiadeshayesii has been considered a subspecies or even a synonym of A. echinata,whereas A. lunulata, only known from the original description, has been confusedwith A. deshayesii. The univariate and multivariate morphometric analysis on sixshell characters substantiates the distinct taxonomic status of the three species.Acanthocardia mucronata (Poli, 1791), Cardium duregnei Monterosato, 1891and C. bullatum Locard, 1892 are considered synonyms ofA. echinata. Cardiumpropexum Monterosato, 1891 is proved to be a synonym ofA. lunulata, an extinctspecies probably endemic to the Mediterranean, like A. deshayesii.