VENEROIDEA, sensu Owen, 1959

Mikkelsen, Paula M., Bieler, Rüdiger, Kappner, Isabella & Rawlings, Timothy A., 2006, Phylogeny of Veneroidea (Mollusca: Bivalvia) based on morphology and molecules, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148 (3), pp. 439-521 : 441

OTHER VENEROIDEA

By the mid-19th century, Bivalvia had been classified into an ordinal system. Veneridae were grouped with various other siphon-bearing families in the order Veneracea H. Adams & A. Adams, 1856. The name (now usually modified to Veneroida ) and the overall composition of the order changed over time, but key components were retained. In these early classifications (e.g. Adams & Adams, 1857; Chenu, 1862; Gill, 1871; Tryon, 1884; Fischer, 1887), Veneridae was grouped very consistently in direct sequence with two other family-level taxa, Petricolidae and Glauconomidae , whose members showed similarities in shell and/or anatomical characteristics (Appendix 1). With few exceptions, subsequent authors adopted the hypothesis of close relationships among Veneridae , Petricolidae , and Glauconomidae , and these three nominal families became the major constituents of the formal superfamily Veneroidea in the 20th century [e.g. Keen, 1969; Scarlato & Starobogatov, 1979; Boss, 1982; the second also including Vesicomyidae , a group more recently placed in the superfamily Glossoidea ; see Allen, 2001]. Hypotheses of relationships and resulting classifications of Veneroidea have differed mostly in the treatment of three smaller families: Turtoniidae , Cooperellidae , and Neoleptonidae .

This study used improved taxon sampling and multiple character sets (including conchology, anatomy, and multiple gene sequences) to examine the phylogenetic composition and status of Veneroidea , Veneridae , and the various proposed venerid subfamilies, and to identify synapomorphies for supported clades.