Laternula elliptica
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Laternula elliptica Temporal range: Pliocene–Recent |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Pholadomyoida |
| Family: | Laternulidae |
| Genus: | Laternula |
| Species: | L. elliptica |
| Binomial name | |
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Laternula elliptica (King & Broderip, 1832) |
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Laternula elliptica is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Laternulidae, the lantern shells. It is the largest bivalve found under the surface of the seabed in the Southern Ocean.
The species was first described in 1832 by the captain of HMS Adventure, Phillip Parker King, and the English naturalist, William Broderip, having been discovered during the first exploration of the South American coastline in HMS Beagle. The title of the paper they published read "Description of Cirrhipedia, Conchifera and Mollusca, in a collection formed by the officers of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle employed between the years 1826 and 1830 in surveying the southern coasts of South America, including the Straits of Magalhaens and the coast of Tierra del Fuego."
The shell of Laternula elliptica is thin and brittle and slightly inflated and grows to a length of 10 centimetres (3.9 in). The left valve is slightly larger and more convex than the right. The general shape is an elongated oval with the posterior end somewhat truncated and narrower than the anterior end. The umbone is shallow and slightly nearer the posterior end and there is a characteristic short transverse crack in it. The internal ligament is supported by a diagonal ridge of shell and there are no teeth near the hinge. The exterior of the shell is white, slightly granular and sculptured with fine concentric lines. The interior of the shell is somewhat nacreous, with two adductor muscle scars and a pallial line that is slightly concave at the anterior end and has a broad pallial sinus at the posterior end. There is a gape at both ends of the shell and a pair of long siphons emerge from the posterior end being fused for their full length. The mantle margins are also fused apart from a small gap at the anterior end and the foot is small.
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