Nucula sulcata Bronn, 1831

Negri, Mauro Pietro & Corselli, Cesare, 2016, Bathyal Mollusca from the cold-water coral biotope of Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulian margin, southern Italy), Zootaxa 4186 (1), pp. 1-97 : 13-15

Nucula sulcata Bronn, 1831

Fig. 2a–b

Nucula sulcata Bronn, 1831 (p. 109, n. 633).

Nucula sulcata Bronn—Jeffreys 1879 (p. 583); Hidalgo 1917 (p. 501); Tebble 1966 (p. 25, pl. 1, fig. c; text-fig. 14d); Di Geronimo & Panetta 1973 (p. 93).

Nucula (Nucula) sulcata Bronn, 1831 — Robba 1968 (p. 480, pl. 37, fig. 1).

Nucula sulcata ( Bronn, 1831) — Nordsieck 1969 (p. 4, pl. 1, fig. 00.12).

Nucula sulcata Bronn, 1831 — Barash & Danin 1992 (p. 230, fig. 236); Cossignani et al. 1992 (fig. 255); Poppe & Goto 1993 (p. 37, pl. 1, fig. 17); Salas 1996 (p. 35, figs. 1–3); Giannuzzi-Savelli et al. 2001 (p. 46, figs. 18–24); Repetto et al. 2005 (p. 282, top left fig.); La Perna 2007 (p. 114, pl. 5, figs. 6–7; pl. 6, figs. 1–9); Oliver et al. 2016 (online resource).

Diagnostic characters. Ovate triangular shell; crenulated inner ventral margin; wavy commarginal cordlets crossed by weak radial striae. Prodissoconch: not available.

Remarks. A single, heavily worn specimen is at hand, apparently reworked from Pleistocene deposits. The species is based on an Eocene fossil ( Malatesta 1974); conspecificity of the living N. sulcata with the fossil type is currently under debate. According to La Perna (2007), N. sulcata may be a complex of species rather than a single taxon.

Occurrence. Box-corer sample BC06 (1 specimen). Length: 9 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Nucula sulcata is widely distributed in the Atlantic Ocean, from Norway to West Africa ( Senegal, Guinea and Angola), and in the Mediterranean Sea. It is regarded as an infralittoral to bathyal species, dwelling in mud, clay or very muddy sand and gravel ( Tebble 1966; Poppe & Goto 1993; La Perna 2003; Ceregato et al. 2007; Oliver et al. 2016). It has been found living in the bathyal of Taranto, characterizing the Abra- Nucula biocoenosis ( Di Geronimo & Panetta 1973).

Fossil record. Middle to Upper Miocene of Portugal, Italy, Austria and Poland ; Pliocene and Pleistocene of Italy; Pleistocene of Denmark; Holocene of Denmark and the North Sea ( Monterosato 1872; Seguenza 1877; Robba 1968; Malatesta 1974; Di Geronimo & Bellagamba 1985; Di Geronimo & La Perna 1997; Monegatti & Raffi 2001; La Perna 2003, 2007; Petersen 2004; Di Geronimo et al. 2005).

Figures

FIGURE 2. a – b: Nucula sulcata Bronn, 1831; RV, sample BC 06, scale bar: 5 mm; c – e: Ennucula aegeensis (Forbes, 1844); RV (c, e) and LV (d), sample BC 72, scale bars: 1 mm (c – d), 0.1 mm (e, prodissoconch); f – h: Ledella messanensis (Jeffreys, 1870); LV, sample BC 72, scale bars: 1 mm (f – g), 0.1 mm (h, prodissoconch); i – k: Malletia obtusa (Sars M. in Sars G. O., 1872); RV (j, k) and LV (i), samples BC 72 (i) and BC 71 (j – k), scale bars: 2 mm (i – j), 0.1 mm (k, prodissoconch); l – n: Pristigloma minima (Seguenza, 1877); RV (m) and LV (l, n), sample BC 72, scale bars: 0.5 mm (l – m), 0.1 mm (n, prodissoconch); o – q: Yoldiella lucida (Lovén, 1846); RV, sample BC 72, scale bars: 1 mm (o – p), 0.1 mm (q, prodissoconch).