Pulvinitinae Stephenson, 1941

Saether, Kristian P., Jingeng, Sha, Little, Crispin T. S. & Campbell, Kathleen A., 2016, New records and a new species of bivalve (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from Miocene hydrocarbon seep deposits, North Island, New Zealand, Zootaxa 4154 (1), pp. 1-26 : 8

Subfamily Pulvinitinae Stephenson, 1941

Remarks. Pulvinitids have never been reported from fossil seep deposits. The closest-related seep fossil group to have been recorded is an indeterminate species of the genus Phelopteria Stephenson, 1952 [1953], belonging to the family Bakevelliidae King, 1850 , of the same superfamily, from the late Campanian Pierre Shale, northern USA ( Shapiro & Fricke 2002). Pulvinitids also are unknown from modern New Zealand seep environments and the New Zealand Cenozoic fossil record, although the only living member of the family, Pulvinites exempla ( Hedley, 1914) , occurs off New Zealand ( Marshall 1998) and is regarded as a living fossil ( Tëmkin 2006). It seems likely, therefore, that it occurs as a fossil in New Zealand sedimentary strata, but until now has not been observed nor identified.