| Page last updated
5 January 2023 |
Mussel of the Month
The January 2023 Mussel of the Month is Pseudocuneopsis capitatus. Pseudocuneopsis is a genus of two species endemic to the Yangtze Basin in China.
MNHN. Central China (type)
|
Pseudocuneopsis was described last year to solve the problem of the non-monophyly of Cuneopsis. That genus name has been in use for both Recent and fossil taxa since it was coined by Simpson in 1900. However, once the extant species had been widely sampled for phylogenetic analyses, three separate clades were discovered: Cuneopsis sensu stricto, the monotypic Arcuneopsis, and Pseudocuneopsis.
The three pieces of Cuneopsis sensu lato seem to be relatively consistently recovered in a clade of East Asian Unionini consisting of the three genera listed above plus Nodularia, Schistodesmus, and Inversiunio. That clade, when sufficient taxon sampling allows, has been placed as sister to Unio (Huang et al., 2019; Lopes-Lima et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2022). It could might perhaps be useful to recognize the subtribe Unionina to distinguish that branch from other genera, such as Aculamprotula, Acuticosta, and Lepidodesma. |
|
Classification:
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Palaeoheterodonta
Order Unionoida
Superfamily UNIONOIDEA Rafinesque, 1820
Family UNIONIDAE s.s.
Subfamily UNIONINAE s.s.
Tribe UNIONINI s.s
Genus Pseudocuneopsis Dai, Chen & Wu in Wu et al., 2022
Species Pseudocuneopsis capitatus (Heude, 1874) |
To find out more about Pseudomulleria and the phylogeny of the Unionini, check out:
- Huang, X.-C., J.-H. Su, J.-X. Ouyang, S. Ouyang, C.-H. Zhou & X.-P. Wu. 2019. Towards a global phylogeny of freshwater mussels (Bivalivia: Unionida): Species delimitation of Chinese taxa, mitochondrial phylogenomics, and diversification patterns. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 130: 45-59.
- Lopes-Lima, M., A. Hattori, T. Kondo, J.H. Lee, S.K. Kim et al. 2020. Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from the rising sun (Far East Asia): phylogeny, systematics, and distribution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 146: 1-27.
- Simpson, C.T. 1900. Synopsis of the naiades, or pearly fresh-water mussels. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 22: 501-1044.
- Wu, X.-P., Y.-T. Dai, N. Yin, F.-Y. Shu, Z.-G. Chen et al. 2022. Mitogenomic phylogeny resolves Cuneopsis (Bivalvia: Unionidae) as polyphyletic: The description of two new genera and a new species. Zoologica Scripta 51: 173-184.
|
