Tindaria salaria Dall, 1908

Raines, Bret & Huber, Markus, 2012, 3217, Zootaxa 3217, pp. 1-106 : 11-12

Tindaria salaria Dall, 1908

Figures 3 F–H

Tindaria salaria Dall, 1908: p. 387 .

Tindaria salaria Dall, 1908 — Villarroel & Stuardo, 1998: p. 117.

Type Material. The type material USNM 110695, composed of three single valves (03/06: 5.2 mm; 01/04: 4.9 mm; 02/05: 3.5 mm) and two additional small fragments.

Type Locality. Dredged off Salas y Gómez Island, 26°30’S, longitude 105°45’W, by the U.S. S. Albatross in 1904, at Station 4693, in gravel at 2089 m .

Original description. “Shell pale cream color or white, nuculiform, smooth on the beaks, near the dorsal slopes and ends of the shell; basally concentrically striated, polished; the shell is very nearly the shape of a small Nucula proxima Say ; ligament small, amphidetic, mostly posterior; resilium obsolete or none; there is no trace of a chondrophore; hinge line arched, with no lunule, the escutcheon narrow, long, feebly defined; interior white, porcellaneous, polished; pallial line not sinuated, margins entire; hinge with seven to eight anterior and eighteen to twenty posterior hinge teeth, small below the beaks, but forming an apparently continuous arch with no central gap.” ( Dall 1908: 387.)

Remarks. Although described over one hundred years ago, this is the first time Tindaria salaria has ever been illustrated ( Figs. 3 F–H). The specimens resemble the genus Tindaria by lacking a pallial sinus, and by having a solid, ovate and rather inflated shape with ventrally marked commarginal sculpture, as well as by missing resilium and uninterrupted dentition ( Fig. 3 G). Other than noted by Dall (1908: 387), no trace of a resilium was detected and the external ligament condition is perceived as opisthodetic, not amphidetic ( Fig. 3 H). This further supports the placement within Tindaria along with its broad and strong hinge, which is characteristic of the genus.

No other eastern Pacific tindariid comes close to this species, notably not T. compressa Dall, 1908 , or T. kennerlyi ( Dall, 1908) , ( Coan et al. 2000: pl. 16), nor the doubtful Tindaria thea Dall, 1908 , from Peru with a marked distinct shape or the many other tindariids illustrated in Knudsen (1970). Comparable in shape is T. antarctica Thiele & Jaeckel, 1931 , but this species lives in much deeper water, grows to twice the size and has a much narrower hinge line. Thus to date, T. salaria is perceived as correctly placed and as an endemic species.

Distribution. At present Tindaria salaria is only known from the type locality, off Salas y Gómez Island— E1.