Ostrea conchaphila
| Ostrea conchaphila | |
|---|---|
| NE[1] | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Ostreoida |
| Family: | Ostreidae |
| Genus: | Ostrea |
| Species: | O. conchaphila |
| Binomial name | |
| Ostrea conchaphila (Carpenter, 1857) | |
Ostrea conchaphila is a species of oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk which lives on the Pacific coast of Mexico south of Baja California. Until recently there was some confusion as to whether this more southern oyster species might in fact be the same species as Ostrea lurida, the well-known but more northerly "Olympia oyster", which it resembles in shell size and color. Because of this confusion, the name O. conchaphila was sometimes applied to various populations of what is now known to be O. lurida.
Recent molecular evidence supports the idea that this species is a separate, more southerly species.
Distribution
This species occurs on the West Mexican coast south of Baja California. There was previously some disagreement about whether this species was distinct from Ostrea lurida, the Olympia oyster, a species which lives north of Baja California.[2]
References
- ↑ IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 28 September 2008.
- ↑ Polson, Maria P. (2009), "You Say Conchaphila, I Say Lurida: Molecular Evidence for Restricting the Olympia Oyster (Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864) to Temperate Western North America", Journal of Shellfish Research, 28 (1): 11–21, doi:10.2983/035.028.0102,
[I]ts name was called into question when it was synonymized with O. conchaphila Carpenter 1857, an oyster whose type locality is Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. Others have considered it more plausible that the Olympia oyster is a more northern species, distinct from O. conchaphila...