Above and below: Málaga, Andalucia, S. Spain. 215mm.
Original taxon: Pinna fragilis.
Pennant: « Pinna with a very thin semi-pellucid whitish shell, most opake near the apex. Marked on the surface with longitudinal slender ribs, roughened with concave scales ; and the whole traversed by innumerable fine striae. In young shells the ribs and scales are almost obsolete. The valves of lesser transverse diameter. The largest about five inches and a half long ; and three and a quarter broad in the broadest part. The figure is of a broader specimen than usual. Dredged up at Weymouth. From the Portland cabinet. » – vol. 4 p. 114.
122m deep, south of La Rochelle, Charente-maritime, W. France. 227-244mm.
Formerly abundant in Scotland and southern Cornwall (Solandt, 2003), but victim of trawls and dredges, the species is now protected in many countries.
From top to bottom: Pinna ingens from Hebrides, Devonshire and north Ireland; Pinna elegans from the Devonshire; Pinna fragilis from Plymouth, Dorsetshire and Sussex. This last one looks terribly like an Atrina pectinata Lin.
Drawings from a plate of T. Brown: Illustrations of the recent conchology of Great Britain and Ireland, Edinburgh & London 1844, via BHL.
Marina di Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, NE. Italy. 290mm.
« The name Pinna pectinata or Atrina pectinata refers to an Indo-Pacific species, but has long been misapplied to the European species now known as Atrina fragilis. All usages of “Pinna” pectinata or Atrina pectinata for a European species are erroneous. » (WoRMS). It is true that the angled and lengthened shells of young fragilis can be confused with some thin specimens of the Indo-Pacific pectinata Linné.
Juvenile from Leucate, Occitania, S. France. 90mm.
Original picture provided by S. Clanzig (FR).
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