A new genus and new species of freshwater mussel from the mid Late Triassic rift lakes of eastern North Carolina (Bivalvia: Unionida: cf. Unionidae)

In eastern North America, surface exposures of Triassic basins extend from Nova Scotia southwestward to South Carolina. This interrupted series of half-grabens resulted from early Mesozoic rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea. In south-central North Carolina, the Deep River basin is comprised of the Durham subbasin, the Colon cross-structure, the Sandford subbasin, the Pekin cross structure, and the Wadesboro subbasin. Deposits within the Durham subbasin are recognized as the Chatham Group, part of the Newark Supergroup and form part of a series informally designated as Lithofacies Association II. These strata are considered to be alternating fluvial and lacustrine sediments. Though research on the vertebrate fauna from this lithofacies has been ongoing for over a century, considerably less research, particularly in North Carolina, has been done on the lacustrine invertebrate fauna.