| Lithophaga Temporal range: Triassic to Recent
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| One valve of a shell of Lithophaga truncata | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Mytilida |
| Family: | Mytilidae |
| Genus: | Lithophaga Röding, 1798 |
| Species | |
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See text | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Lithophaga, the date mussels, are a genus of medium-sized marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Some of the earliest fossil Lithophaga shells have been found in Mesozoic rocks from the Alps and from Vancouver Island.[2][3]
The shells of species in this genus are long and narrow with parallel sides. The animals bore into stone or coral rock with the help of pallial gland secretions,[4] hence the systematic name Lithophaga, which means "stone-eater". Their club-shaped borings are given the trace fossil name Gastrochaenolites.[3]
- ^ Gofas, Serge (2004). "Lithophaga Röding, 1798". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species.
- ^ Ludvigsen, Rolf & Beard, Graham. 1997. West Coast Fossils: A Guide to the Ancient Life of Vancouver Island. pg. 102
- ^ a b Kleemann, K.H., 1994. Mytilid bivalve Lithophaga in Upper Triassic coral Pamiroseris from Zlambach Beds compared with Cretaceous Lithophaga alpina. Facies 30, 151–154.
- ^ "integument (mollusks)."Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD