Spondylus ostreoides E. A. Smith, 1885
SMITH, E. A. 1885. Report on the Lamellibranchiata collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. In Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-1876. Zoology, 13: 1-341, pls. 1-25. [p. 326, text figs. 1, 2]
1885 Spondylus ostreoides E. A. Smith, 1885
The single specimen obtained is of small size, and consequently may not be adult. It is of the same general form as many other species of the genus, but is remarkable in being concentrically sculptured and lacking the radiating ridges, usually spine-bearing, which, so far as I am aware, are present upon the upper or free valve of every known species. This absence of radiating sculpture, and the lamellated character of the concentric lines of growth, gives this species very much the appearance of a small oyster, which suggested the name Spondylus ostreoides. The inner margin of the valves of most species of this genus are fluted, a style of sculpture occasioned by the external ribbing. In the present form this generic character is maintained in a modified form, the upper valve having nearly all round, somewhat remote elongate tubercles which fit into minute pits or punctures in the other valve.
Length 11 mm., height 14, diameter 6.
Habitat.— Station 170, July 14, 1874; lat. 29° 55' S.,long. 178° 14' E.; depth, 520 fathoms; bottom, volcanic mud (north of the Kennedec Islands). Most of the known species of Spondylus (with the exception of a few brought up on telegraph cables) have hitherto been obtained in comparatively shallow water. The absence of colour in the present form, and its depauperated condition, is probably the result of existing in deeper and colder water than usual, and fine handsome species are not to be expected from such localities. A fact worth mentioning in this place is the presence, upon the upper valve, of a species of Polyzoa, which my colleague Mr. Quelch pronounces without doubt to be Cribrilina radiata (Moll.), a form found in shallow water on the British coast.»
EDGAR ALBERT SMITH, 1885
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