Etheria elliptica explained

Etheria is a genus of freshwater oysters in the Etheriidae family of mollusk bivalves, and a part of the Unionida order.^[1] The genus includes a single species, Etheria elliptica, that is found throughout Africa and Madagascar.^[2]

Etheria elliptica was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1807, and lives in river basins along the Nile, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria, and in Chad, Zaire, Niger, Senegal, and Angola.^[3]

Etheria are found as fossils at paleontological sites in Africa, including at Lake Turkana 3-5 million years ago.^[4] It first appears in the Miocene in northeast Zaire.

Synonyms

• Aetheria bourguignati Rochebrune, 1886 ·
• † Aetheria chambardi Bourguignat, 1880 ·
• Aetheria denhami Koenig, 1826 ·
• Aetheria elliptica (Lamarck, 1807) ·
• Aetheria elliptica var. globosa E. von Martens, 1897 ·
• Aetheria heteromorpha Simroth, 1894 ·
• Aetheria letourneuxi Bourguignat, 1880 ·
• Aetheria nidushirundinis Simroth, 1890 ·
• Aetheria nilotica Bourguignat, 1880 ·
• Aetheria petrettinii Bourguignat, 1880 ·
• Aetheria senegalica Bourguignat, 1880 ·
• Aetheria tanganikana Bourguignat, 1889 ·
• Aetheria tubifera G. B. Sowerby I, 1825 (junior synonym)
• Aetheria tubulifera [sic] ·
• Etheria cailliaudi A. Férussac, 1824 ·
• Etheria carteroni Michelin, 1831
• Etheria lamarckii A. Férussac, 1824 (unnecessary substitute name for...)
• Etheria plumbea A. Férussac, 1824 (unnecessary substitute name for...)
• Etheria semilunata Lamarck, 1807 ·
• Etheria transversa Lamarck, 1807 (junior synonym)
• Etheria trigonula Lamarck, 1807 (junior synonym)

Notes and References

1. Book: Huber, Markus . 2010 . Compendium of Bivalves. A Full-color Guide to 3'300 of the World's Marine Bivalves. A Status on Bivalvia after 250 Years of Research . Conch Books . Hackenheim . 901 pp. + CD . 978-3-939767-28-2.
2. Web site: Freshwater Mussels of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. The Mussel Project. Daniel Graf and Kevin Cummings. 17 June 2015.
3. Book: Harper. Elizabeth. Taylor. David. Crame. Alistair. The Evolutionary Biology of the Bivalvia. 2000. Geological Society of London.
4. Book: Leakey. Meave. Harris. John. Feibel. Craig. Stewart. Kathlyn. Cerling. Thure. Werdelin. Lars. Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Early Pliocene Site of Kanapoi, Northern Kenya. 2003.