Parilimya waitotarana

Parilimya waitotarana is a species of bivalve, a marine mollusc in the family Parilimyidae. Fossils of the species date to late Pliocene strata of the Waipipi Formation in New Zealand.

Description

In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
The holotype of the species has a height of, a length of, and a thickness of for a single valve. It can be distinguished from P. maoria due to having weaker radial costae and a more concave ventral margin.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1931, who named the species Pholadomya waitotarana. Alan G. Beu and Phillip A. Maxwell provisionally placed the species in Parilimya in 1990, however suggested a new genus may be necessary for the species. The holotype was collected in January 1931 from Waipipi near the mouth of the Wairoa Stream, Waverley, South Taranaki, and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Ecology

The species is likely to have lived in the Littoral and Neritic zones off the coast of New Zealand.

Distribution

This extinct marine species occurs in late Pliocene strata of the Waipipi Formation in New Zealand. Fossils of the species have been found near Waverley, South Taranaki, and from Mangaone Crossing in the Wairoa District.