Turnus? davidsoni (de Loriol), the earliest British pholadid wood-boring bivalve, from the Late Jurassic of Oxfordshire

Turnus? davidsoni (de Loriol) is described from the Shotover Grit Sands, Early Volgian/Kimmeridgian/Tithonian, of Shotover Hill, Oxfordshire and is ascribed to the pholadacean family Pholadidae. Although wood-boring bivalves are indicated by the presence of the trace fossil Teredolites as Early as Lias (Portugal), Bajocian (Australia) and Bathonian (England), body fossils of Pholadidae hitherto have not been described from Jurassic strata in the British Isles. There are only five principal recorded occurrences of Jurassic wood-boring bivalve body fossils. Of these only three can be assigned to the Pholadidae (representatives of Opertochasma and Turnus); the two earliest examples are of unknown affinity. Jurassic wood-boring bivalves are rare and further records are urgently needed to establish the early history of this group.