Vol. 52 (2001): Meddelelser om Grønland. Bioscience

Petersen, G. H.: Studies on some Arctic and Baltic Astarte species (Bivalvia, Mollusca), 71 pp.

This book is one of the numerous publications from the 1995-1996 expeditions to the arctic Ikkafjord, SW Greenland.

A few genera evolved a large number of arctic species during late Tertiary. This is also true for certain bivalve genera, and the identification of the bivalve species from the quantitative material from Ikkafjord involved studies on material form the earliest scientific expeditions to the Arctic regions. The species concepts and their names date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when also the ideas on ice ages and glaciation took form. These ideas have been supported by studies on recent and fossil bivalves.

The neotype of Astarte borealis (Schumacher, 1817) from Iceland, shown on the front page, was located in the collection of the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen. Illustrations of this species have been used for identifications of both Canadian and Baltic bivalves with some confusion as results. Peart of the Astarte species is cleared up here, but much is left to future studies.