Ostrea conchaphila
species of mollusc
Ostrea conchaphila is a species of oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk which lives on the Pacific coast of Mexico south of Baja California. Until recently there was some confusion as to whether this more southern oyster species might in fact be the same species as Ostrea lurida, the well-known but more northerly "Olympia oyster", which it resembles in shell size and color. Because of this confusion, the name O. conchaphila was sometimes applied to various populations of what is now known to be O. lurida.
Recent molecular evidence supports the idea that this species is a separate, more southerly species.
Distribution
This species occurs on the West Mexican coast south of Baja California from the Gulf of California to northern Peru. There was previously some disagreement about whether this species was distinct from Ostrea lurida, the Olympia oyster, a species which lives north of Baja California on the northern Pacific coast of North America.
“Ostrea conchaphila” enters the record as species of mollusc. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ostrea, conchaphila and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ostrea conchaphila” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ostrea, conchaphila and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3013415. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Ostrea conchaphila” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.