Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T00:49:18.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Deep-sea wood-boring bivalves of Xylophaga (Myoida: Pholadidae) on the Continental Shelf: a new species described

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2008

Janet R. Voight*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Janet R. Voight, Department of Zoology, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA email: Jvoight@fmnh.org

Abstract

Deep-sea organisms are generally considered to be restricted to the great ocean depths, unable to enter shallower habitats except perhaps at the isothermic polar latitudes, due to physiological constraints, or more intense biotic interactions. Wood-boring bivalves of Xylophaga, however, are here shown to be exceptional. A clade, formally recognized by Turner in 2002, united by the derived characters of a complex mesoplax and a truncated excurrent siphon, papillose incurrent siphon with a longitudinal dorsal trough bordered by lappets, and often carrying white or glass-like granules, occurs at significantly shallower and warmer depths than do other species of the genus. Here, description of the new species X. multichela from 106 m depth off the Pacific coast of Guatemala illustrates the characters that unite the clade. Because wood-boring bivalves face intense competition and high levels of predation at depths of 2200 to 3250 m, they may not perceive biotic interactions at shallower depths to be dramatically more intense. In addition, members of this group are hypothesized to tolerate reduced oxygen availability, a requisite if animals are to occur in warm waters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dautzenberg, P. (1927) Mollusques provenant des campagnes scientifiques du Prince Albert 1er de Monaco dans l'Ocean Atlantique et dans le Golfe de Gascogne. Résultats des Campagnes Scientifiques, Monaco 71, 1400.Google Scholar
Distel, D.L. and Roberts, S.J. (1997) Bacterial endosymbionts in the gills of the deep-sea wood-boring bivalves Xylophaga atlantica and Xylophaga washingtona. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 192, 253261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, R. (1996) Deep water Xylophagaidae (Pelecypoda: Pholadacea) from the North Atlantic with descriptions of three new species. Journal of Conchology London 35, 473481.Google Scholar
Hoagland, K.E. and Turner, R.D. (1981) Evolution and adaptive radiation of wood-boring bivalves (Pholadacea). Malacologia 21, 111148.Google Scholar
Jablonski, D., Sepkoski, J.J. Jr., Bottjer, D.J. and Sheehan, P.M. (1983) Onshore–offshore patterns in the evolution of Phanerozoic shell communities. Science 222, 11231125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, D.K. and Lindberg, D.R. (1998) Oxygen and evolutionary patterns in the sea: onshore/offshore trends and recent recruitment of deep-sea faunas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95, 93969401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knudsen, J. (1961) The bathyal and abyssal Xylophaga. Galathea Expeditions 5, 163209.Google Scholar
Knudsen, J. (1967) The deep-sea Bivalvia. The John Murray Expedition 1933–34 Scientific Reports 11, 237343.Google Scholar
Okutani, T. (1975) Deep-sea bivalves and scaphopods collected from deeper than 2,000 m in the Northwestern Pacific by the R/V Soyo-Maru and the R/V Kaiyo-Maru during the years 1969–1974. Bulletin of the Tokai Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory 82, 5787.Google Scholar
Purchon, R.D. (1941) On the biology and relationships of the lamellibranch Xylophaga dorsalis (Turton). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 25, 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quiroga, S.Y., Bolaños, D.M. and Litvaitis, M.K. (2006) First description of deep-sea polyclad flatworms from the North Pacific: Anocellidus n. gen. profundus n. sp. (Anocellidae, n. fam.) and Oligocladus voightae n. sp. (Euryleptidae). Zootaxa 1317, 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santhakumaran, L.N. (1980) Two new species of Xylophaga from Trondheimsfjorden, Western Norway (Mollusca, Pelecypoda). Sarsia 65, 269272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiøtte, T. (2005) Boring bivalves in the Arctic deep sea? First record of Xylophaga shells (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Pholadidae) from the Greenland Sea. Deep-Sea Newsletter 34, 1617.Google Scholar
Turner, R.D. (1955) The family Pholadidae in the western Atlantic and the eastern Pacific. Part II—Martesiinae, Jouannetiinae and Xylophaginae. Johnsonia 3, 65160.Google Scholar
Turner, R.D. (1966) A survey and illustrated catalogue of the Teredinidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Cambridge: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, R.D. (1973) Wood-boring bivalves, opportunistic species in the deep sea. Science 180, 13771379.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, R.D. (2002) On the subfamily Xylophagainae (Family Pholadidae, Bivalvia, Mollusca). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 157, 223307.Google Scholar
Tyler, P.A., Young, C.M. and Dove, F. (2007) Settlement, growth and reproduction in the deep-sea wood-boring bivalve mollusc Xylophaga depalmai. Marine Ecology Progress Series 343, 151159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vermeij, G.J. (1987) Evolution and escalation: an ecological history of life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voight, J.R. (2005) First report of the enigmatic echinoderm Xyloplax from the North Pacific. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 208, 7780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voight, J.R. (2007) Experimental deep-sea deployments reveal diverse Northeast Pacific wood-boring bivalves of Xylophagainae (Myoida: Pholadidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73, 377391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voight, J.R. (in press) Near-shore and offshore wood-boring bivalves (Myoida: Pholadidae: Xylophagainae) of the deep Eastern Pacific Ocean: Diversity and Reproduction. Journal of Molluscan Studies.Google Scholar