1. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the Rio Grande is the most endangered river system in the North American continent and one of the World’s top 10 rivers at risk, but is globally important for freshwater biodiversity. Unionid bivalves of the Rio Grande river basin used to be represented by a unique assemblage, including four endemic species (Truncilla cognata, Potamilis metnecktayi, Pope...

We report here the complete genome sequence of the Vibrio coralliilyticus-specific phage pVco-5, a double-stranded DNA virus isolated from an oyster hatchery tank. Vibrio coralliilyticus causes bacillary necrosis in marine bivalve larvae; hence, phage pVco-5 could be used to prevent V. coralliilyticus infections in these larvae.

Size is a fundamental organismal trait and an important driver of ecosystem functions. Although large individuals may dominate some functions and provide important habitat structuring effects, intra-specific body size effects are rarely investigated in the context of BEF relationships. We used an in situ density manipulation experiment to explore the contribution of large, deep-burrowing bivalv...

The first-order biodiversity pattern on Earth today and at least as far back as the Paleozoic is the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), a decrease in richness of species and higher taxa from the equator to the poles. LDGs are produced by geographic trends in origination, extinction, and dispersal over evolutionary timescales, so that analyses of static patterns will be insufficient to reveal...

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Approximately 40% of a skeleton including cranial and postcranial remains representing a new genus and species of basal neotheropod dinosaur is described. It was collected from fallen blocks from a sea cliff that exposes Late Triassic and Early Jurassic marine and quasi marine strata on the south Wales coast near the city of Cardiff. Matrix comparisons indicate that the specimen is from the lit...

Marine bivalves of the family Myalinidae are an important benthic constituent of the Permian Reef Complex of West Texas and New Mexico. We describe and summarize the myalinids from Lower and Middle Permian reef and near-reef settings and infer living habits as either epifaunal or semi-infaunal byssally attached suspension feeders. The six myalinid species described are exceptionally preserved a...

1Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo USP, Rua do Lago 562, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, Brazil, CEP 05508−080 2 British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, High Cross, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0ET, United Kingdom 3 Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, Twarda 51/55, 00−818, Warszawa, Poland 4 Departamento de Zoologia, Inst...

Giant clams, the largest living bivalves, live in close association with coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific. These iconic invertebrates perform numerous important ecological roles as well as serve as flagship species-drawing attention to the ongoing destruction of coral reefs and their associated biodiversity. To date, no review of giant clams has focussed on their behaviour, yet this comp...

The gills of juvenile freshwater bivalves undergo a complex morphogenesis that may correlate with changes in feeding ecology, but ontogenic studies on juvenile mussels are rare. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the ultrastructure and ontogeny of 117 juvenile freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) ranging in age from 1-44 months and length from 0.49-8.90 mm. Three...