Cumberlandia

Cumberlandia is a genus of freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve molluscs in the family Margaritiferidae, the freshwater pearl mussels.^[1]

Cumberlandia Temporal range: Early Cretaceous to present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cumberlandia monodonta
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Unionida
Family:	Margaritiferidae
Genus:	Cumberlandia Ortmann, 1912
Species
Cumberlandia monodonta †Cumberlandia rhazensis †Cumberlandia saharica

The following single extant species is included in this genus:^[2]

• Cumberlandia monodonta (Say, 1829) — spectaclecase pearly mussel

In addition, two fossil species are also known from the Early Cretaceous Elrhaz Formation of Niger:^[1][3][4]

• †Cumberlandia rhazensis (Mongin, 1968)
• †Cumberlandia saharica (Mongin, 1968)

Both fossil species were previously classified in the genus Margaritifera, but were reclassified into Cumberlandia on the basis of their morphology in a 2018 revision of the family Margaritiferidae. This makes Cumberlandia a very ancient genus that was formerly more widespread. The common ancestor of Pseudunio and Cumberlandia is thought to have inhabited what is now the Mediterranean region during the Early Cretaceous, with some ancestral Cumberlandia dispersing south to Africa and others dispersing west to eastern North America, explaining their present and former distribution.^[4]

References

1. "Molluscabase - Cumberlandia Ortmann, 1912". molluscabase.org. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
2. "MUSSELpdb | valid gen. Cumberlandia species". mussel-project.uwsp.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
3. Lapparent, Albert F. de; Mongin, Denise (1968-01-01). "Etude paleontologique de lamellibranches limniques recoltes dans le Cretace inferieur du Niger (Afrique)". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. S7-X (2): 148–155. doi:10.2113/gssgfbull.s7-x.2.148. ISSN 1777-5817.
4. Lopes-Lima, Manuel; Bolotov, Ivan N.; Do, Van Tu; Aldridge, David C.; Fonseca, Miguel M.; Gan, Han Ming; Gofarov, Mikhail Y.; Kondakov, Alexander V.; Prié, Vincent; Sousa, Ronaldo; Varandas, Simone; Vikhrev, Ilya V.; Teixeira, Amílcar; Wu, Rui-Wen; Wu, Xiaoping (2018-10-01). "Expansion and systematics redefinition of the most threatened freshwater mussel family, the Margaritiferidae". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 127: 98–118. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2018.04.041. hdl:10198/18714. ISSN 1055-7903.