Teredina
| Teredina Temporal range: Late Cretaceous - late Pliocene
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| Genus: | Teredina Lamarck, 1818
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Teredina is an extinct genus of fossil bivalve mollusc that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the late Pliocene in Asia, Europe, and North America.[1]
Teredina shells consist of 2 short, hooked valves with a pair of furrows and each valve with transverse ridges.[2] The overall body was long and clud-shaped. Teredina used the ridges on each valve to bore into drift wood by rocking back and forth; its long body shape allowed for large intestines for it to carry bacteria capable of breaking down the cellulose in the wood.[2] Petrified drift wood with Teridina burrows can be found in the Cretaceous rocks of Vancouver Island.[2]
References
- Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 111)
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