Lucinoma kazani n.sp. (Mollusca: Bivalvia): evidence of a living benthic community associated with a cold seep in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Lucinoma kazani, a new deep-water species of Lucinidae from the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, is described and illustrated. The material was collected in the Anaximander Mountains, between Rhodes and Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean. The first living specimens were collected during the Dutch ANAXIPROBE project in the Kazan volcano, at a depth of 1709 m. Later, during the MEDINAUT programme, both living specimens and shells were collected from several mud volcanoes at different depths in the Anaximander Mountains. This bivalve holds symbionts in the ctenidia, as do all previously studied Lucinidae. The type of habitat of this new species is gas-saturated mud, with high levels of methane, which diffuses upwards into a low-oxygen deep-water. Therefore, we consider this as evidence of a living cold seep community in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd