An international research team, with Spanish participation, has discovered a new species of mollusc, Polyconites hadriani, in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula. The researchers say this species, which is the oldest in its genus, adapted to the acidification of the oceans that took place while it was in existence. This process could now determine the evolution of modern marine systems.
The new species Polyconites hadriani, which was discovered in 2007, has been crowned the oldest in the Polyconites genus of the family Polyconitidae (rudists), a kind of extinct sea mollusc. To date, scientists had thought that the oldest mollusc in this genus was Polyconites verneuili.
‘P. hadriani is similar in shape to P. verneuili, but it is smaller (with a 30 mm smaller diameter), and with a thinner calcite layer to its shell (around 3 mm difference),’ Eulalia Gili, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the Department of Geology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), tells SINC.
Continue reading ‘Oldest species of a marine mollusc discovered’
