Variation of some structural and developmental characteristics of ctenidia was studied in bivalves representing the families Mytilidae, Unionidae, Dreissenidae, Sphaeriidae and Cardiidae. Fingernail and pill clams were investigated most thouroughly. Significant differences in the outer demibranch position were found in Sphaeriidae (in the genus Pisidium) and Cardiidae. In the first family, correlation between the outer demibranch position and the time of its ontogenetic origin is observed. Some taxonomic interpretations of the described differences are discussed. For Unio and Anodonta, the differences in the outer demibranch growth rate are demonstrated.
Cretaceous cold−seep deposits of the Yezo Group on Hokkaido, Japan, yield a rich and well−preserved mollusk fauna. The systematics of nine bivalve species previously reported from these deposits can now be reevaluated using newly collected fossils. The fossils include a Cenomanian specimen of Nucinella gigantea with a drill hole possibly made by a naticid, by far the oldest record of a drill hole from a cold seep site. In Japan, Cretaceous seep bivalve assemblages are characterized by (i) the unique occurrence of large specimens of Nucinella (Manzanellidae), (ii) the commonly present nuculid Acila (Truncacila), and (iii) a high diversity of lucinids, possibly as many as four distinct genera. Two new species described are the Albian Acharax mikasaensis(Solemyidae) and the Albian to Campanian Thyasira tanabei (Thyasiridae), of which the former had previously been misidentified as the oldest vesicomyid, the latter as the oldest Conchocele.