Tindaria kretensis n.sp., a new deep water protobranch (Bivalvia) from the Early Pliocene of Crete (Southern Greece)

Tindaria kretensis n. sp., a minute deep-water protobranch, is described from Early Pliocene marls cropping out in the Voutes section, northern Crete Island. This is one of the few fossil records of Tindaria from the Mediterranean area, the first well documented for the Neogene. Tindaria is an almost cosmopolitan deep-water genus, absent from the modern Mediterranean. Its occurrence in the Early Pliocene is in agreement with what is known about the past psychrospheric conditions in the Mediterranean.