Dataset Information

A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines.

ABSTRACT: Shipworms are a group of wood-boring and wood-feeding bivalves of extraordinary economic, ecological and historical importance. Known in the literature since the fourth century BC, shipworms are both destructive pests and critical providers of ecosystem services. All previously described shipworms are obligate wood-borers, completing all or part of their life cycle in wood and most are thought to use wood as a primary source of nutrition. Here, we report and describe a new anatomically and morphologically divergent species of shipworm that bores in carbonate limestone rather than in woody substrates and lacks adaptations associated with wood-boring and wood digestion. The species is highly unusual in that it bores by ingesting rock and is among the very few known freshwater rock-boring macrobioeroders. The calcareous burrow linings of this species resemble fossil borings normally associated with bivalve bioerosion of wood substrates (ichnospecies Teredolites longissimus) in marginal and fully marine settings. The occurrence of this newly recognized shipworm in a lithic substrate has implications for teredinid phylogeny and evolution, and interpreting palaeoenvironmental conditions based on fossil bioerosion features.

SUBMITTER: Shipway JR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6599978 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines.

Shipway J Reuben JR Altamia Marvin A MA Rosenberg Gary G Concepcion Gisela P GP Haygood Margo G MG Distel Daniel L DL

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20190619 1905

Shipworms are a group of wood-boring and wood-feeding bivalves of extraordinary economic, ecological and historical importance. Known in the literature since the fourth century BC, shipworms are both destructive pests and critical providers of ecosystem services. All previously described shipworms are obligate wood-borers, completing all or part of their life cycle in wood and most are thought to use wood as a primary source of nutrition. Here, we report and describe a new anatomically and morph ...[more]

PMID: 31213180

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Project description:Here we describe an anatomically divergent wood-boring bivalve belonging to the family Teredinidae. Specimens were collected off the coast of Mabini, Batangas, Philippines, in February 2018, from sunken driftwood at a depth of less than 2 m. A combination of characteristics differentiates these specimens from members of previously named teredinid genera and species. Most notable among these include: an enlarged cephalic hood which extends across the posterior slope of the shell valves and integrates into the posterior adductor muscle; a unique structure, which we term the 'cephalic collar', formed by protruding folds of the mantle immediately ventral to the foot and extending past the posterior margin of the valves; a large globular stomach located entirely posterior to the posterior adductor muscle and extending substantially beyond the posterior gape of the valves; an elongate crystalline style and style sac extending from the base of the foot, past the posterior adductor muscle, to the posteriorly located stomach; calcareous pallets distinct from those of described genera; a prominently flared mantle collar which extends midway along the stalk of the pallets; and, separated siphons that bear a pigmented pinstripe pattern with highly elaborate compound papillae on the incurrent siphon aperture. We used Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT) to build a virtual 3D anatomical model of this organism, confirming the spatial arrangement of the structures described above. Phylogenetic analysis of the small (18S) and large (28S) nuclear rRNA gene sequences, place this bivalve within the Teredindae on a branch well differentiated from previously named genera and species. We propose the new genus and species Tamilokus mabinia to accommodate these organisms, raising the total number of genera in this economically and environmentally important family to 17. This study demonstrates the efficacy of Micro-CT for anatomical description of a systematically challenging group of bivalves whose highly derived body plans are differentiated predominantly by soft tissue adaptations rather than features of calcareous hard-parts.

Project description:Identification of ecosystem services, i.e. the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being, has proven instrumental in galvanising public and political support for safeguarding biodiversity and its benefits to people. Here we synthesise the global evidence on ecosystem services provided and disrupted by freshwater bivalves, a heterogenous group of >1200 species, including some of the most threatened (in Unionida) and invasive (e.g. Dreissena polymorpha) taxa globally. Our systematic literature review resulted in a data set of 904 records from 69 countries relating to 24 classes of provisioning (N = 189), cultural (N = 491) and regulating (N = 224) services following the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). Prominent ecosystem services included (i) the provisioning of food, materials and medicinal products, (ii) knowledge acquisition (e.g. on water quality, past environments and historical societies), ornamental and other cultural contributions, and (iii) the filtration, sequestration, storage and/or transformation of biological and physico-chemical water properties. About 9% of records provided evidence for the disruption rather than provision of ecosystem services. Synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services were observed. For instance, water filtration by freshwater bivalves can be beneficial for the cultural service 'biomonitoring', while negatively or positively affecting food consumption or human recreation. Our evidence base spanned a total of 91 genera and 191 species, dominated by Unionida (55% of records, 76% of species), Veneroida (21 and 9%, respectively; mainly Corbicula spp.) and Myoida (20 and 4%, respectively; mainly Dreissena spp.). About one third of records, predominantly from Europe and the Americas, related to species that were non-native to the country of study. The majority of records originated from Asia (35%), with available evidence for 23 CICES classes, as well as Europe (29%) and North America (23%), where research was largely focused on 'biomonitoring'. Whilst the earliest record (from 1949) originated from North America, since 2000, annual output of records has increased rapidly in Asia and Europe. Future research should focus on filling gaps in knowledge in lesser-studied regions, including Africa and South America, and should look to provide a quantitative valuation of the socio-economic costs and benefits of ecosystem services shaped by freshwater bivalves.

Dataset Information

A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines.

Publications

A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines.

Similar Datasets

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