Genera Of The Bivalvia

Bivalves are key components of recent marine and freshwater ecosystems and have been so for most of the Phanerozoic. Their rich and long fossil record, combined with their abundance and diversity in modern seas, has made bivalves the ideal subject of palaeobiological and evolutionary studies. Despite this, however, topics such as the early evolution of the class, relationships between various taxa and the life habits of some key extinct forms have remained remarkably unclear. This volume integrates palaeontological and zoological approaches and sheds new light on the course of bivalve evolution.

This book identifies all valid species belonging to the superfamily Mactroidea living in American waters, distributed across fourteen biogeographical provinces. It also provides an updated classification of the widely occurring Mactroidea superfamily, which comprises eight subfamilies grouped into four families: Mactridae (Lamarck, 1809); Anatinellidae (Deshayes, J.Gray 1853); Cardiliidae (Fischer, 1887) and Mesodesmatidae (J. Gray, 1840). The species included in this superfamily are known to have existed in North America since the Early Cretaceous.

Sir Charles Maurice Yonge who died in 1986 was the foremost authority on the Bivalvia and one of the greatest marine biologists of this century. The volume is a memorial to his achievements and comprises 22 papers presented at a symposium in his honour during the IX International Malacological Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1986. It contains 4 sections: Evolution, Feeding and Digestion, Functional Morphology, and Ecology, and will be of interest to all students of the Mollusca.