KM COLLECTION
Quality Shells of the Acanthocardia Genus
Scientific Classification
Acanthocardia Genus
Distribution
TAXONOMY
Acanthocardia Genus was named by J.E. Gray (1851)
It was reranked as Cardium (Acanthocardia) by Melvill (1907) and Oostingh (1935); it was reranked as Cardium (Anthocardia) by Richards (1953); it was assigned to Cardiinae by Vokes (1980), to Veneroida by Sepkoski (2002), to Acanthocardiini by Schneider (2002) and to Cardiidae by Vera-Peláez (2004).
KM collection is about shells of the Acanthocardia Genus.
The Acanthocardia Genus (Acanthocardia Gray) is including medium sized, globose cardiids with strong radial, spiny ribs; 5 extant species are currently assigned to this Genus:
Acanthocardia spinosa (Solander, 1786),
Acanthocardia aculeata (Linnaeus,1767)
Acanthocardia tuberculata (Linnaeus, 1758)
Acanthocardia echinata (Linnaeus, 1758) Acanthocardia paucicostata (Sowerby, 1841)
other 2 debated species :
Acanthocardia mucronata (Poli, 1795)
Acanthocardia deshayesi (Payraudeau, 1826)
are by some scientists considered effective species, by some others they are considered sub species of Acanthocardia echinata.
Mollusks of the Acanthocardia Genus can be found in the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, North and East Barents Sea, Black Sea, Celtic Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, from the United Kingdom area, down to France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco; including islands like Azores, Madeira and Canary. They live from the intertidal zone to about 200 meters of depth, but usually live from 5 to 100 meters of depth on sand, mud and gravel bottoms.