Etheria elliptica

Etheria is a genus of freshwater oysters in the Etheriidae family of mollusk bivalves, and a part of the Unionida order. The genus includes a single species, Etheria elliptica, that is found throughout Africa and Madagascar.

Etheria elliptica was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1807, and lives in river basins along the Nile, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria, and in Chad, Zaire, Niger, Senegal, and Angola.

Etheria are found as fossils at paleontological sites in Africa, including at Lake Turkana 3-5 million years ago. It first appears in the Miocene in northeast Zaire.

Synonyms

 * Aetheria bourguignati Rochebrune, 1886 ·
 * † Aetheria chambardi Bourguignat, 1880 ·
 * Aetheria denhami Koenig, 1826 ·
 * Aetheria elliptica (Lamarck, 1807) ·
 * Aetheria elliptica var. globosa E. von Martens, 1897 ·
 * Aetheria heteromorpha Simroth, 1894 ·
 * Aetheria letourneuxi Bourguignat, 1880 ·
 * Aetheria nidushirundinis Simroth, 1890 ·
 * Aetheria nilotica Bourguignat, 1880 ·
 * Aetheria petrettinii Bourguignat, 1880 ·
 * Aetheria senegalica Bourguignat, 1880 ·
 * Aetheria tanganikana Bourguignat, 1889 ·
 * Aetheria tubifera G. B. Sowerby I, 1825 (junior synonym)
 * Aetheria tubulifera [sic] ·
 * Etheria cailliaudi A. Férussac, 1824 ·
 * Etheria carteroni Michelin, 1831
 * Etheria lamarckii A. Férussac, 1824 (unnecessary substitute name for...)
 * Etheria plumbea A. Férussac, 1824 (unnecessary substitute name for...)
 * Etheria semilunata Lamarck, 1807 ·
 * Etheria transversa Lamarck, 1807 (junior synonym)
 * Etheria trigonula Lamarck, 1807 (junior synonym)