(Montagu, 1808)

Description:
Shell thin and fragile. Faint radiating striations, visible with hand lens, and slightly bolder concentric lines. Anterior hinge line curving well above the horizontal when the posterior is vertical; 14-18 hinge teeth anteriorly, 6-10 posteriorly; lunule poorly defined, escutcheon strongly pouting. Margin of shell smooth (N. tenuis-drawing).

Size:
Up to 10 mm long.

Colour:
Shell white or grey, periostracum glossy, greenish-yellow to brown.

Habitat:
On muddy deposits, offshore, perhaps to the edge of the continental shelf.

Distribution:
Not in the southern North Sea (Distr. N. tenuis). Distribution circumboreal; present in the Mediterranean.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Protobranchia
Order Nuculoida
Family Nuculidae
Genus Nuculoma
Species Nuculoma tenuis

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Nuculoma tenuis (Montagu, 1808)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Arca tenuis Montagu, 1808
Nucula bellotti Adams A., 1856
Nucula tenuis var. lucida Whiteaves, 1887
Nucula tenuis

Hayward, P.J., Wigham, G.D. & N. Yonow, 1990. Mollusca I: Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Gastropoda. In: The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe. (ed. P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland). Clarendon Press, Oxford: 628-730.

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

Tebble, N., 1966. British Bivalve Seashells. 212 pp. Trustees of The British Museum (Natural history). London.

You can continue searching for Nuculoma tenuis on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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