Tridacninae

Tridacninae
Temporal range: Eocene - recent
The Giant clam Tridacna gigas.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Veneroida
Family: Cardiidae
Subfamily: Tridacninae Lamarck, 1819
Genera

See text

The Tridacninae are a subfamily of Bivalves colloquially known as giant clams. The family contains the biggest bivalve species, including Tridacna gigas, the giant clam. They have heavy shells, fluted with 4–6 folds. Mantle is usually brightly coloured. They inhabit coral reefs in warm seas of the Indo-Pacific region. In some areas, such as the Philippines, members of the family are farmed for the marine aquarium trade. Most of them live in symbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae).

Systematics

Sometimes the giant clams are still treated as a separate family Tridacnidae,[1] but modern phylogenetic analyses included them in the family Cardiidae as a subfamily.[2][3] Two recent genera and eight species are known:

Recent genetic evidence has shown them to be monophyletic sister taxa.[4]

References

  1. ^ WoRMS. (2009). Tridacnidae. Accessed through the World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=196336 on 2009-01-10.
  2. ^ Schneider,J. Phylogeny of cardiid bivalves (cockles and giant clams): revision of the Cardiinae and the importance of fossils in explaining disjunct biogeographical distributions. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002,136, 321–369
  3. ^ Keys,J.L., Helay,J.M. Relevance of Sperm Ultrastructure to the Classification of Giant Clams (Mollusca, Cardioidea, Cardiidae, Tridacninae)(in: Harper et al., (Eds) The Evolutionary Biology of the Bivalvia, Geological Society Special Publication No 177, 2000)
  4. ^ Schneider, J.A.,and O´Foighil, D. Phylogeny of Giant Clams (Cardiidae: Tridacninae) Based on Partial Mitochondrial 16S rDNA Gene Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Vol. 13, No. 1, October, pp. 59–66, 1999

External links