GNS Science

Revised descriptions of New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca from Beu and Maxwell (1990)

New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca

Marama (Marama) murdochi Marwick, 1927



scale

(Pl. 41c, d): Waihi Beach, Hawera, South Taranaki, Waipipian (GNS, from an early collection - Marshall and Murdoch Collection ?) (Pl. 41d, exterior); paratype, GS1173, Q21/f6495, Waihi Beach, Hawera, Waipipian (TM4519, GNS) (Pl. 41c, interior).

Beu & Maxwell (1990): Chapter 15; p. 316; pl. 41 c,d.

Synonymy: Marama murdochi Marwick 1927, p. 604; Marama murdochi marwicki Beu 1970a, p. 121

Type species of Marama Marwick, 1927

Classification: Veneridae: Venerinae

Description: Moderate-sized for family (40-55 mm long), thin, regularly oval, moderately to very highly inflated, very finely sculptured. Lunule exceedingly large and prominent, pouting above its bounding groove, extending almost to anterior end of shell. Sculpture of very low, very thin, closely spaced commarginal lamellae, 2-4 per mm, largely abraded off many specimens. Interior of ventral margin very finely crenulate. Hinge narrow, with short, tubercular anterior lateral tooth, triangular anterior cardinal tooth, unequally divided median cardinal, and long, straight posterior one separated from nymph by a groove in left valve; right valve with moderately deep anterior lateral pit, narrow anterior cardinal tooth, median cardinal unequally grooved, and posterior cardinal very large, deeply grooved. Pallial sinus moderately deep, narrowly triangular.

Comparison: The slightly more elongate Kapitean-Opoitian form for which Beu (1970a) erected the subspecies Marama murdochi marwicki is no more different from "typical" Waipipian shells than are the short, highly inflated Nukumaruan shells common in southern Wairarapa; there seems little point in subdividing this variable species. M. hurupiensis (Tongaporutuan; Pl. 29b, c) is larger, less inflated, more coarsely sculptured, and has a lower, narrower lunule. Dosina species are more coarsely sculptured, have very much smaller lunules, and most have a much shorter pallial sinus. Extinction of the genus and species is a useful index of the end of Nukumaruan time.

Distribution: Kapitean-Nukumaruan. Waihi Beach, Hawera, South Taranaki, Waipipian (type of Marama murdochi); Upton Brook, Awatere Valley, Marlborough, Kapitean (type of M. murdochi marwicki). Common in mudstone (i.e., it burrowed in soft substrates) deposited in mid-shelf to upper bathyal depths, throughout New Zealand.


Cite this publication as: "A.G. Beu and J.I. Raine (2009). Revised descriptions of New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca from Beu and Maxwell (1990). GNS Science miscellaneous series no. 27."
© GNS Science, 2009
ISBN 978-0-478-19705-1
ISSN 1177-2441
(Included with a PDF facsimile file copy of New Zealand Geological Survey Paleontological Bulletin 58 in CD version from: Publications Officer, GNS Science, P.O. Box 30368 Lower Hutt, New Zealand)

References

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