Three new deep-sea species of Thyasiridae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the northwestern Pacific Ocean

Abstract

The Thyasiridae is one of the species-richest families in the abyssal and hadal zones of the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Many thyasirid species dominate benthic communities in terms of abundance and play an important role in the functioning of deep-sea ecosystems. Most of the thyasirid species in the region are new to science and have not been described. Based on the material collected from 1954 to 2016 by seven deep-sea expeditions, three new species of Thyasiridae (Parathyasira coani sp. nov., P. pauli sp. nov., and Thyasira kharkovensis sp. nov.) are described from the abyssal and hadal zones (3210–7540 m depth) of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, as well as the Kuril-Kamchatka and Japan trenches. The new species are remarkable among their congeners due to the combination of the following characters: an obliquely-rhomboidal shell with a weak and shallow posterior sulcus and a large prodissoconch with sculpture of lamellated folds. Comparisons with related species are provided.