### animal | mollusc | bivalve:

Clam
* Most clams are harvested for food
  - meat
  - machine sorted by their smallest dimension
  - only a few inches long
  - bury themselves in sediment and communicate to the sediment-water interface by siphons
  - eat plankton
* Most clams excrete anchor filament
* Most clams find along coasts
  - east coasts
  - west coasts
* Most clams have color
  - development
  - shapes
  - size
  - thin shells
  - valves
* Most clams inhabit coastal water
  - coral reefs
* Most clams live in water
  - zones
  - on beaches
  - over years
  - make pearl
  - prefer beaches
* Most clams prefer sandy beaches
  - bottom beaches
  - require water
* Some clams are very long-lived
  - bury themselves in sand or mud
* Some clams can grow pearls as big as golf balls
  - live for over a century
  - change over time
* Some clams eat algas
  - microscopic algas
  - feed on algas
  - get food
* Some clams go through larval stages
  - several stages
  - grow to length
  - harbor algas
* Some clams have ability
  - impact
  - ligaments
  - movement
  - muscles
  - predators
  - types
  - values
  - live for years
* Some clams live in burrows
  - communities
  - saltwaters
  - occur in streams
  - provide food
  - reach maturity
  - swim through water
  - take up residences
  - use feet.
  * A 'clam' type of shellfish. Clams can be found in saltwater and freshwater. Clams eat plankton, and are eaten by small sharks and squid. Clams can be eaten by people. They may be found on menus in restaurants that serve seafood. Clams are a fairly common form of bivalve, therefore making it part of the phylum mollusca. There are many clams in the ocean, but some can also be found in some lakes, streams, and rivers
* also are vulnerable to toxins in the sediment
  - contain high quantities of important dietary nutrients and minerals
* always lie quiet.
  - also low in calories, total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol
  - animals that burrow under the sea floor
  - best in well-established aquariums that have had several weeks or months to cycle
  - bivalves
  - capable of changing their sex to reproduce
  - easier to open than oysters
* are filter feeders and thus trap and filter out their food as the water passes by
  - that take in any pollutants from the water
  - feeders, meaning they feed on plankton strained from the water using their siphon
  - filter-feeders
  - found in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific
  - located in water
  - mollusks that live in the sea or in freshwater
  - multicelluer
  - now the fourth-most valuable seafood species in the state
  - one of the sources of food that they seem to enjoy the most
  - part of clams
  - shellfishs
  - slow, sluggish animals and the sensory sys- tem required is relatively simple
  - strictly aquatic creatures and they can come in a whole variety of sizes
  - subject to concentrations of both natural and man-made toxins
* are the best bait for stripers, except for live eels
  - principal food of the walrus
  - their preferred diet, though freshwater mussels are equally acceptable
  - used as a filtrate so they eat the waste product of a fish and some micro organisms
  - very big in Florida
  - yummy
* attain ages.
* burrow into sand.
* bury in sediments.
* can be nursery reared in the water column in upwellers, trays or other devices
  - cure cancer
  - grow pearls, like their classier cousin, the oyster
  - live for decades
  - vary in sizes but are typically small in comparison to other animals
* come in many colors, including shades of brown, red-brown, yellow, cream, etc
  - into season and are associated with early spring in Japan
* cook on wire grids supported on steel rails over the fire.
* develop functional male gonads during the first or second year of life.
* don t have teeth.
* draw water into their shells through a siphon that they extend through the mud into the water.
* feed upon plankton through a double-tubed siphon which operates like a snorkel.
* gather food using a filtering system.
* harvested in polluted waters can cause hepatitis.
* have a burrowing foot that they use to dig down into the sand or mud to hide
  - bend valves
  - open circulatory systems
* includes brains
  - carapaces
  - cell membranes
  - cells
  - corpi
  - cytoplasm
  - faces
  - heads
  - nuclei
  - plasma membranes
  - sections
  - skulls
  - vacuoles
  - underground, using a muscular foot to dig down into sand or mud
* move about by using a hatchet-shaped foot to creep along the muddy bottom of the Bay
  - vertically along the beach in response to the changing tides
* prefer a shell and sand substrate over muddy bottoms
* range in color from pale to deep orange.
* reproduce by releasing gametes, or eggs and sperm, into the water.
* seem to squirt water through their siphons.
* survive by getting oxygen and food from the waters of the bay.
* undergo a slightly different process.
+ Clam, Clinging clams: Bivalves :: Seafood
  * Clams have a burrowing foot that they use to dig down into the sand or mud to hide. If you go to the beach and see little holes that appear in the sand each times the waves go away, it is probable that clams made them. Scientists classify clams by how far down they dig and what kind of surface they dig into. Some burrow less than an inch under the sand, while others dig several inches below the surface.