Etheria elliptica

Etheria elliptica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Unionida
Family: Etheriidae
Genus: Etheria
Lamarck, 1807
Species:
E. elliptica
Binomial name
Etheria elliptica
Lamarck, 1807

Etheria is a genus of freshwater oysters in the Etheriidae family of mollusk bivalves, and a part of the Unionida order.[1] The genus includes a single species, Etheria elliptica, that is found throughout Africa and Madagascar.[2]

Etheria elliptica was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1807, and lives in river basins along the Nile, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria, and in Chad, Zaire, Niger, Senegal, and Angola.[3]

Etheria are found as fossils at paleontological sites in Africa, including at Lake Turkana 3-5 million years ago.[4] It first appears in the Miocene in northeast Zaire.[3]

  1. ^ Huber, Markus (2010). Compendium of Bivalves. A Full-color Guide to 3'300 of the World's Marine Bivalves. A Status on Bivalvia after 250 Years of Research. Hackenheim: Conch Books. pp. 901 pp. + CD. ISBN 978-3-939767-28-2.
  2. ^ "Freshwater Mussels of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands". The Mussel Project. Daniel Graf and Kevin Cummings. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b Harper, Elizabeth; Taylor, David; Crame, Alistair (2000). The Evolutionary Biology of the Bivalvia. Geological Society of London.
  4. ^ Leakey, Meave; Harris, John; Feibel, Craig; Stewart, Kathlyn; Cerling, Thure; Werdelin, Lars (2003). Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Early Pliocene Site of Kanapoi, Northern Kenya.