Pterioidea

Pterioidea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Pterioida
Superfamily: Pterioidea
Gray 1840 (1820)

Pterioidea is a superfamily of epifaunal marine bivalves mostly inhabiting continental shelf regions of tropical and subtropical oceans. The superfamily includes the economically-important saltwater pearl oysters as well as the oddly shaped hammer oysters (neither of which, however, is considered a true oyster). A number of species have found use as model organisms in the fields of medicine and science.[1]

It includes the following three accepted families:

  • Malleidae, the hammer oysters, Lamarck, 1818
  • Pteriidae, the pearl oysters, tree oysters, and winged oysters, Gray, 1847 (1820)
  • Pulvinitidae, a family of rare deep sea oysters, no common name, Stephenson, 1941

References

  1. Tëmkin, Ilya (2010). "Molecular phylogeny of pearl oysters and their relatives (mollusca, bivalvia, pterioidea)". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (342): 1471–2148. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-342. PMC 3271234. PMID 21059254.


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