Malleus (bivalve)

Malleus is a genus of hammer oysters (marine bivalve mollusks) in the family Malleidae. This genus includes 27 known species.

Malleus
Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758), museum specimens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Pteriida
Family: Malleidae
Genus: Malleus
Lamarck, 1799

Characteristic of this genus is the unusual "hammer-shaped" outline of the valves. The shells are nearly equivalved, but the hinge line is extremely long and is at nearly a right angle to the rest of the valves, which grow ventrally. The viscera of the organism are arranged in an oval-shaped patch near the umbones of the valves.[1]

Species
  • Malleus albus Lamarck, 1819
  • Malleus anatinus (Gmelin, 1791)
  • Malleus candeanus (d'Orbigny, 1853)
  • Malleus daemoniacus Reeve, 1858
  • Malleus legumen Reeve, 1858
  • Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Malleus meridianus Cotton, 1930
  • Malleus regula (Forsskål in Niebuhr, 1775)
  • Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Malleus malleus (Linnaeus, 1758)

References
  1. Julia Ellen Rogers (1913). The Shell Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Families of Living Mollusks, and an Aid to the Identification of Shells Native and Foreign. Doubleday, Page. p. 399.


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