''Clausinella fasciata'', the banded venus, is a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family Veneridae.

Fossil record

Fossils of ''Clausinella fasciata'' are found in marine strata from the Miocene until the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

(age range: from 20.43 to 0.012 million years ago). Fossils are known from various localities in Cyprus, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Morocco and Spain.

Description

This species has a solid, flat, sub-triangular shell which grows to in length. Surface colour is variable; red, pink, purple, yellow or brown with radiating bands and colourful streaks. It may have up to fifteen broad concentric ridges on older specimens. The interior is dull white.

Distribution and habitat

The banded venus has a recorded distribution and common around all coasts of the British Isles. It is found in coarse gravel, typically containing sand or shell fragments, down to depths of as much as .

References

Veneridae Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Marine molluscs of Europe Bivalves described in 1778 Taxa named by Emanuel Mendes da Costa {{bivalve-stub