''Pseudodon'' is a genus of
bivalvia of the
Unionidae family that is native to East and Southeast Asia. There are 14 recognized species.
Description
The taxon was described by
John Gould from his findings at the
Salween River 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 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 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,
Cambodia, and southern
Vietnam, while the species ''Pseudodon resupinatus'' is endemic to northern Vietnam, and the species ''Pseudodon vondembuschianus'' is found in
Indonesia and
Indochina.
[''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 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,
Indonesia. The shell has a
zigzag 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 (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