''Pseudodon'' is a genus of

bivalvia Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of w ...

of the

Unionidae The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids. The range of distribution for this family is world-wide. It is at its most diverse ...

family that is native to East and Southeast Asia. There are 14 recognized species.

Description

The taxon was described by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

from his findings at the

Salween River , ''Mae Nam Salawin'' ( , name_etymology = , image = Sweet_View_of_Salween_River_in_Tang_Yan_Township,_Shan_State,_Myanmar.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Salween River in Shan State, Myanmar , map ...

Basin in

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

as a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

of the genus '' Anodon''. Gould included two species in the taxon, the type species ''Anodon inoscularis'' and ''Anodon salweniana''. The shell of ''Pseudodon'' is rather thick and shaped like an elongated oval, with a slightly convex crown on the upper valve shifted toward the rear. The surface, although most often smooth, is in some species crossed by deep transverse furrows. The

hinge teeth Hinge teeth are part of the anatomical structure of the inner surface of a bivalve shell, i.e. the shell of a bivalve mollusk. Bivalves by definition have two valves, which are joined together by a strong and flexible ligament situated on the hing ...

are high, thick, and rounded at the apices.Haas, 1969 . 128.

Range

The habitat of the genus is limited to East and Southeast Asia, mainly the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

Basin and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. The species ''Pseudodon inoscularis'' is also found in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, and southern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, while the species ''Pseudodon resupinatus'' is endemic to northern Vietnam, and the species ''Pseudodon vondembuschianus'' is found in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

.''Zieritz A., & Lopes-Lima M.'
Handbook and National Red-List of the Freshwater Mussels of Malaysia
— Kuala Lumpur: IUCN Species Survival Commission, 2018. — P. 19.

Hominid use

Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL, with details of the engraving.

Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL The Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL or Pseudodon DUB1006-fL (540,000-430,000 BP) is a fossil freshwater shell of '' Pseudodon vondembuschianus trinilensis'' found at Trinil, Java, Indonesia. The shell has a zigzag engraving supposedly made by '' Homo ...

is a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

shell of ''Pseudodon vondembuschianus trinilensis'' that was found in

Trinil Trinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It was at this site in 1891 that the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois discovered the first early hominin remains to be ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. The shell has a

zigzag A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...

pattern engraved on it by a ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

''. It was carved between 540,000 and 430,000 years before present, and is the oldest known anthropogenic carving in the world. There is an ongoing controversy on whether or not the carving can qualify as

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

(which would make it the oldest piece of art in the world). Some commentators call it a "doodle" or "decorative marks", while others suggest that the carving is explicitly art.

Currently recognized species

* ''Pseudodon aureus'' * ''Pseudodon avae'' * ''Pseudodon bogani'' * ''Pseudodon crebristriatus'' * ''Pseudodon inoscularis'' * ''Pseudodon kayinensis'' * ''Pseudodon manueli'' * ''Pseudodon nankingensis'' * ''Pseudodon peguensis'' * ''Pseudodon pinchonianus'' * ''Pseudodon resupinatus'' * ''Pseudodon salwenianus'' * ''Pseudodon secundus'' * ''Pseudodon vondembuschianus''

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q106915867 Unionidae Bivalve genera