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Teredina

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Teredina
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous – late Pliocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Myida
Family: Teredinidae
Genus: †Teredina
Lamarck, 1818
Species[1]

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.[2]

Teredina shells consist of 2 short, hooked valves with a pair of furrows and each valve with transverse ridges.[3] The overall body was long and clud-shaped. Teredina used the ridges on each valve to bore into driftwood 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.[3] Petrified drift wood with Teridina burrows can be found in the Cretaceous rocks of Vancouver Island.[3]

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