Website - https://www.ecdivers.comFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/ECDivers/Juvenile scallops swimming on the wreck or the North Star in Stellwagen Bank.

Nov 10, 2023 · Unlike some other bivalves, they are a free-swimming mollusk. The abductor muscle inside the scallop helps them to open and close their shell. This helps move water and allows the scallops to “swim” through the ocean.

Some bivalves, such as scallops and file shells, can swim. Shipworms bore into wood, clay, or stone and live inside these substances. The shell of a bivalve is composed of calcium carbonate , and consists of two, usually similar, parts called valves .

Some bivalves do not attach themselves to anything but remain free. Scallop shells, Pecten maximus . Scallops have a row of bright blue eyes rimming the mantle and can detect approaching predators.

Aug 20, 2024 · These include sea combs, which swim abruptly by opening and closing their valves to expel jets of water from their pallial cavity, helping them escape from predators. Additionally, some bivalves are known as drilling bivalves.

Most bivalve species go through a free-swimming larval stage before taking on their characteristic adult form and lifestyle. Most species of bivalves are filter feeders. Currents of water are drawn into the body and through the gills, where tiny food particles are caught in the gill mucus.

Feb 13, 2019 · The most famous swimming bivalves are the scallops, which have evolved to use jet propulsion, similar to their very distantly related cephalopod relatives. But unlike the cephalopods, scallops evolved to use their hinged shells to aid this process!

Jan 5, 2023 · Modern bivalves can be free-swimming, live on or attached to another organism or a substrate (epifaunal), or live in the substrate (infaunal). Some infaunal and epifauntal bivalves attach to the substrate or other objects by strong, thread-like features called byssus.

Some bivalve species, such as the pilgrim's scallop (Pecten) , and the flame shell (Lima) are able to swim through open water on their own. The bivalve jerkily presses together the two shell valves and ejects the water contained within.

Aug 26, 2020 · Swimming bivalves such as scallops have more layered ligaments than more sedantry species. The protein that is the basis of the ligament is called “abductin” and is unique to bivalves. It is also the only naturally occurring protein protein with compressible elasticity.