Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. They live in both freshwater and marine environments; in salt water they prefer to burrow down into the mud and the turbidity of the water required varies with species and location; the greatest diversity of these is in North America.
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters are in the superfamily Ostreoidea.
Bivalvia, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bivalves have no head and they lack some usual molluscan organs, like the radula and the odontophore. They include the clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, and numerous other families that live in saltwater, as well as a number of families that live in freshwater. The majority are filter feeders. The gills have evolved into ctenidia, specialised organs for feeding and breathing. Most bivalves bury themselves in sediment, where they are relatively safe from predation. Others lie on the sea floor or attach themselves to rocks or other hard surfaces. Some bivalves, such as the scallops and file shells, can swim. The shipworms bore into wood, clay, or stone and live inside these substances.
The giant clams are the members of the clam genus Tridacna that are the largest living bivalve mollusks. There are actually several species of "giant clams" in the genus Tridacna, which are often misidentified for Tridacna gigas, the most commonly intended species referred to as "the giant clam".
Soft-shell clams or sand gaper, scientific name Mya arenaria, popularly called "steamers", "softshells", "piss clams", "Ipswich clams", or "Essex clams" are a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Myidae.
Hachirōgata or Hachirō Lagoon is a lake in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. Its formal name is Lake Hachirō, but it is also called Hachirōgata Regulating Pond. At 4 meters below sea level, Hachirōgata is the lowest natural point in Japan.
Mytilopsis sallei, the black-striped mussel, is a small marine bivalve mollusc in the family Dreissenidae, the false mussels.
Carcinus maenas is a common littoral crab. It is known by different names around the world. In the British Isles, it is generally referred to as the shore crab, or green shore crab. In North America and South Africa, it bears the name european green crab.
The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids.
Lake Shinji is a lake in the northeast area of the Shimane Prefecture in Japan. The lake is the seventh largest in Japan, with a circumference of 48 kilometres (30 mi). It is enclosed by the Shimane Peninsula to the north, and the Izumo and Matsue plains to the west and east respectively. 7,652 ha of wetland are a Ramsar Site.
Corbicula fluminea is a species of freshwater clam native to eastern Asia which has become a successful invasive species throughout North America, South America, and Europe. Corbicula fluminea is commonly known in the west as the Asian clam or Asiatic clam. In Southeast Asia, C. fluminea is known as the golden clam, prosperity clam, pygmy clam, or good luck clam.
Corbicula is a genus of freshwater and brackish water clams, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Cyrenidae, the basket clams. The genus name is the New Latin diminutive of Latin corbis, a basket, referring to the shape and ribs of the shell.
Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves which live in freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, the main habitat type for bivalves.
The Japanese whiting, Sillago japonica, is a common species of coastal marine fish belonging to the smelt-whiting family, Sillaginidae. As suggested by its name, the Japanese whiting was first recorded from Japan in 1843, but has subsequently been found to extend to Korea, China and Taiwan.
Platyrhina is a genus of rays in the family Platyrhinidae, containing three species. They are native to the warm-temperate to tropical marine waters in the western Pacific Ocean. They are little-known bottom-dwellers that feed on small invertebrates such as crustaceans, molluscs, and worms. The fanray is found inshore to a depth of 60 m on rocky or rock sandy bottoms.
Salangichthys microdon, the Japanese icefish, is a species of icefish found in Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. With the recent removal of S. ishikawae to the genus Neosalangichthys this species is the only remaining member of the genus Salangichthys. This species grows to a total length of 10 cm (3.9 in). Despite its small size, it is considered a food fish and caught in commercial fisheries.
Nuttallia obscurata, the purple mahogany clam, dark mahogany clam, varnish clam or savory clam, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Psammobiidae. It was first described to science by Lovell Augustus Reeve, a British conchologist, in 1857.
Potamocorbula amurensis is a species of small saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the order Myida. Common names include the overbite clam, the Asian clam, the Amur River clam and the brackish-water corbula. The species is native to marine and brackish waters in the northern Pacific Ocean, its range extending from Siberia to China, Korea and Japan. It has become naturalised in San Francisco Bay.
Corbicula leana, known as chamjaecheop in Korean and as mashijimi in Japanese, is a species of freshwater and brackish water clams, distributed in the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.
Brama japonica, the Pacific pomfret, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a pomfret of the family Bramidae. B. japonica is closely related, and quite similar, to Brama brama, but can be distinguished by possessing a greater number of anal fin rays and a higher number of gill rakers.
