Bivalvia | Unionida | Unionoidea

family MARGARITIFERIDAE Henderson, 1929

synonyms (5 nomina) | cladomics


Global Distribution of the Margaritiferidae. The thin purple wedge of the pie depicts the relative Recent species diversity of the family in the order Unionida (16 of 1005).

The Margaritiferidae consists of only 16 Recent species, and although the distribution of the family is patchy, it is found in North America, North Eurasia and East Asia. Various genus-level classifications have been used over the years, and until recently we have regarded the family to represent a single genus. New phylogenetic information now divides the species among 4 Recent genera in two subfamilies.

Included Taxa

Decorative image of a representative Gibbosulinae

subfamily GIBBOSULINAE Bogan, Bolotov, Froufe & Lopes-Lima in Lopes-Lima et al., 2018: 5 Recent freshwater species.

synonymy (1 nomen) | 1 genus

Recent Distribution: East Asia

Decorative image of a representative Margaritiferinae

subfamily MARGARITIFERINAE Henderson, 1929: 11 Recent freshwater species.

synonymy (4 nomina) | 3 genera

Recent Distribution: North America, East Asia, North Eurasia

genus Asturianaia Delevene, Munt, Piñuela & García-Ramos, 2016: fossil only.

synonymy (1 available nomen) | 2 species

genus Discunio Starobogatov, 1970: fossil only.

synonymy (1 available nomen) | 1 species

genus Martinsoniconcha Starobogatov, 1970: fossil only.

synonymy (1 available nomen) | 1 species

genus Mengyinaia Chen, 1984: fossil only.

synonymy (1 available nomen) | 1 species

genus Proarcidopsis Starobogatov, 1970: fossil only.

synonymy (1 available nomen) | 1 species

genus Shifangella Liu & Luo in Liu, 1981: fossil only.

synonymy (3 available nomina) | 3 species