INVESTIGADORES
BIGATTI Gregorio
artículos
Título:
EXTRAORDINARY FLEXIBLE SHELL SCULPTURE: THE STRUCTUREAND FORMATION OF CALCIFIED PERIOSTRACAL LAMELLAE INLUCINA PENSYLVANICA (BIVALVIA: LUCINIDAE)
Autor/es:
JOHN D. TAYLOR1*, EMILY GLOVER1, MELITA PEHARDA2, GREGORIO BIGATTI3 & ALEX BALL1
Revista:
MALACOLOGIA
Editorial:
INST MALACOL
Referencias:
Año: 2004 vol. 46 p. 277 - 294
ISSN:
0076-2997
Resumen:
ABSTRACT The lucinid bivalve Lucina pensylvanica possesses an unusual flexible commarginalshell sculpture formed from calcified periostracal lamellae. The lamellae comprise thick,recurved, periostracal extensions with distal calcified scales. The periostracum is alsodensely embedded with calcareous granules around 2.0-2.5 µm in diameter and a thin (10µm) layer of prismatic aragonite covers the ventral face of each lamella. Other species ofLucina in the western Atlantic possess calcified scales but with different morphologies andthe continuous commarginal ridges of the eastern Atlantic Lucina adansoni and other Afri-can species are similarly constructed and homologous. The periostracal lamellae are aprobable apomorphy of the genus Lucina and morphology of the calcified structures pro-vides a set of systematic characters of importance in the discrimination of species. Key words: Lucina pensylvanica, periostracum, calcification, shell growth, systematics.
