Austrotindaria Fleming, 1948

Foster, William J., Danise, Silvia & Twitchett, Richard J., 2017, A silicified Early Triassic marine assemblage from Svalbard, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 15 (10), pp. 851-877 : 858

Genus Austrotindaria Fleming, 1948

Type species. Austrotindaria wrighti Fleming 1948 ; Holocene , Quaternary; Southland, New Zealand .

Diagnosis. Delicate almost smooth shell, with weak concentric sculpture. A short, edentulous gap between the posterior and anterior hinge plates. No pallial sinus and without rostrum.

Remarks. The Neilonellidae comprises three valid genera: Neilonella , Austrotindaria and Pseudoneilonella ( La Perna 2007) . The convex shape of the posterior margin and the presence of an opisthodetic ligament in our specimens indicate better agreement with Austrotindaria than Neilonella ( Di Geronimo & La Perna 1997; La Perna 2007). Austrotindaria differs from Neilonella and Pseudoneilonella by having a delicate, almost smooth shell rather than a sturdy, sculptured shell, and by having a small elongate pit below the posterior and anterior teeth ( La Perna 2007). This genus is currently known from the Miocene to Recent ( La Perna 2007; Coan & Valentich-Scott 2012), and the specimens identified in his study extend the range of the genus to the beginning of the Triassic.