Lucinid bivalves from ancient methane seeps

Twelve species of lucinid bivalves are reported from late Jurassic to late Miocene methane-seep deposits worldwide. Among them, eight species and two genera are new. Amanocina n. gen. includes Nipponothracia yezoensis from the Cenomanian of Japan as type species, Cryptolucina kuhnpassetensis Kelly, 2000 from the Berriasian of Greenland, A. raukumara n. sp. from the Albian of New Zealand and A. colombiana n. sp. from the Oligocene of Colombia. Tehamatea n. gen. includes Lucina ovalis Stanton, 1895 and Lucina colusaensis Stanton, 1895 from the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous of California, T. vocontiana n. sp. from the Hauterivian of southern Europe and T. agirrezabalai n. sp. from the Albian of northern Spain. The new species are: Cubatea awanuiensis from the Albian and Cenomanian of New Zealand, Nymphalucina panochensis from the early Palaeocene of California, Elliptiolucina washingtonia from the late Oligocene of Washington State, USA, and Elongatolucina peckmanni from the Oligocene of Colombia. New combinations are provided for Nipponothracia lomitensis (Olsson, 1931) from the Oligocene of Peru and Elliptiolucina hetzeli (Martin, 1933) from the late Miocene of Indonesia. The anterior adductor muscle scar of Beauvoisina carinata is documented for the first time. The lucinids found at Jurassic and Cretaceous deep-water methane seeps belong to the subfamily Myrteinae and within this to genera that are restricted to the seep environment (Beauvoisina, Tehamatea, Amanocina and Cubatea); shallow-water seeps were inhabited by the codakiine genus Nymphalucina, which is not seep-restricted. Amanocina, Cubatea and Nymphalucina survived into the Cenozoic. Genera that newly colonized deep-water seeps during the Cenozoic include members of both Myrteinae (Elongatolucina, Nipponothracia and Elliptiolucina) and Codakiinae (Epilucina and Lucinoma); the latter are clearly not seep-restricted.