Crassostrea ingens

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Crassostrea ingens
Temporal range: MiocenePliocene
Crassostrea ingens WRM.jpg
from Wilkies Shellbed, 2.5 mya.
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreoida
Family: Ostreidae
Genus: Crassostrea
Species:C. ingens
Binomial name
Crassostrea ingens
Zittel, 1864

Crassostrea ingens [1] is a species of fossil oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae, the oyster. This species lived during the Pliocene. Fossils have been found in New Zealand shallow-water limestone and shellbeds. Locations include the Wairarapa, Whanganui basin, Gisborne district, North Canterbury, and Hawke's Bay (especially in the Te Aute limestone).

Oyster food ingredient

Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all, oysters are in the superfamily Ostreoidea.

Family is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy; it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as being the "walnut family".

Ostreidae family of molluscs

The Ostreidae, the true oysters, include most species of molluscs commonly consumed as oysters. Pearl oysters are not true oysters, and belong to the order Pterioida.

Description

Crassostrea ingens is a giant fossil oyster. It has a shell reaching a height of 200 millimetres (7.9 in) to over 300 millimetres (12 in). This shell is biconvex. The left valve is thick and deep, with inflation of 60 millimetres (2.4 in) to over 80 millimetres (3.1 in); interior cavity depth 30 millimetres (1.2 in) to over 40 millimetres (1.6 in). The right valve is almost flat, 15 millimetres (0.59 in) to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) thick. Most specimens curve slightly to the left. The adductor scar area in most Pliocene specimens retains a purplish red colour. Beu and Raine (2009) note that: "This is the sole giant oyster in New Zealand Late Miocene–Pliocene rocks, and there has never been any confusion over the identity of C. ingens." [2]

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References

  1. K.A. Zittel (1864) ii. Fossile Mollusken und Echinodermen aus Neu-Seeland. Nebst Beiträgen von den Herren Bergrath Franz Ritter V. Hauer und Professor Eduard Suess. in: Hochstetter F von, Hörnes M, Ritter von Hauer F ed. Paläontologie von Neu-Seeland. Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Fossilien Flora und Fauna der Provinzen Auckland und Nelson. Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde, Geologischer Theil1(2): 15–68.
  2. A.G. BEU and J.I. RAINE (2009) REVISED DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW ZEALAND CENOZOIC MOLLUSCA FROM BEU AND MAXWELL (1990) GNS Science miscellaneous series no. 27.