Anatomical redescription of Cyrenoida floridana (Bivalvia, Cyrenoididae) from the Western Atlantic and its position in the Cyrenoidea

Abstract

Members of the small bivalve family Cyrenoididae inhabit brackish waters of the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean. Cyrenoida floridana (Dall, 1896) from the western Atlantic is poorly known aside from shell descriptions. A detailed shell and anatomical study of C. floridana is here presented and compared with available data for Cyrenidae and Glauconomidae, two families of closest relationship according to recent phylogenetic studies. The species is characterized by valves externally covered by thin light brown periostracum; muscle scars and pallial line (without sinus) weakly impressed on the internal shell surface; a unique hinge pattern composed of cardinal and lateral teeth joining each other, right hinge with two laterals and two cardinals forming two inverted-V-shaped teeth and left hinge with two cardinals and one lateral forming a horizontal reversed F-shaped tooth; and microtubules inside the shell walls. Anatomically, the species presents unequal adductor muscles; demibranchs fused to each other along their posterior ends; a pair of totally fused, pigmented siphons; two pairs of siphonal retractor muscles; and a stomach with conjoined style sac and intestine, a single typhlosole, and three sorting areas. Evidence of shell parasitism is described.