Ostrea conchaphila

Ostrea conchaphila
Ostrea conchaphila shell
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreida
Family: Ostreidae
Genus: Ostrea
Species:
O. conchaphila
Binomial name
Ostrea conchaphila
(Carpenter, 1857)

Ostrea conchaphila is a species of oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk which lives on the Pacific coast of Mexico south of Baja California. Until recently there was some confusion as to whether this more southern oyster species might in fact be the same species as Ostrea lurida, the well-known but more northerly "Olympia oyster", which it resembles in shell size and color. Because of this confusion, the name O. conchaphila was sometimes applied to various populations of what is now known to be O. lurida.

Recent molecular evidence supports the idea that this species is a separate, more southerly species.[1]

  1. ^ Polson, Maria P.; Hewson, William E.; Eernisse, Douglas J.; Baker, Patrick K.; Zacherl, Danielle C. (2009). "You Say Conchaphila, I Say Lurida: Molecular Evidence for Restricting the Olympia Oyster (Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864) to Temperate Western North America". Journal of Shellfish Research. 28: 11–21. doi:10.2983/035.028.0102.