A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
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.
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters to protect their soft insides. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers. The shells are empty because the animal has died and the soft parts have decomposed or been eaten by another organism.
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 or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of aquatic molluscs that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed by a calcified exoskeleton consisting of a hinged pair of half-shells known as valves. As a group, bivalves have no head and lack some typical molluscan organs such as the radula and the odontophore. Their gills have evolved into ctenidia, specialised organs for feeding and breathing.
Capiz, officially the Province of Capiz, is a province in the Philippines located in the central section of Western Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Roxas, which is the most populous. It is located at the northeastern portion of Panay Island, bordering Aklan to the north, Antique to the west, and Iloilo to the south. Capiz faces the Sibuyan Sea to the north.
The eastern oyster —also called the Atlantic oyster, American oyster, or East Coast oyster—is a species of true oyster native to eastern North and South America. Other names in local or culinary use include the Wellfleet oyster, Virginia oyster, Malpeque oyster, Blue Pointoyster, Chesapeake Bay oyster, and Apalachicola oyster. C. virginica ranges from northern New Brunswick south through parts of the West Indies to Venezuela. It is farmed in all of the Maritime provinces of Canada and all Eastern Seaboard and Gulf states of the United States, as well as Puget Sound, Washington, where it is known as the Totten Inlet Virginica. It was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 19th century and is common in Pearl Harbor.
Pearl hunting, also known as pearl fishing or pearling, is the activity of recovering or attempting to recover pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in the Persian Gulf region and Japan for thousands of years. On the northern and north-western coast of Western Australia pearl diving began in the 1850s, and started in the Torres Strait Islands in the 1860s, where the term also covers diving for nacre or mother of pearl found in what were known as pearl shells.
Plebidonax deltoides or Donax deltoides is a small, edible saltwater clam or marine bivalve mollusc, endemic to Australia. It belongs to the family of either the Donacidae, or the related Psammobiidae. It is most widely known as the pipi in the eastern states of its native Australia. In South Australia, it is called the Coorong cockle, Goolwa cockle, or Goolwa pipi, for the region where it is most abundant, or by its Ngarrindjeri name, kuti. In south-eastern Queensland, it is often also known as eugarie or (y)ugari, a borrowing from the local Yugambeh and Ugarapul languages.
The California mussel is a large edible mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Mytilidae.
The Atlantic surf clam, also called the bar clam, hen clam, skimmer or simply sea clam, is a very large, edible, saltwater clam or marine bivalve mollusk in the family Mactridae. It is one of the most commonly found species of bivalves in the western Atlantic Ocean. Able to reach sizes between 7.9 and 8.9 inches in length, Atlantic surf clams are much larger than Spisula solida, which also resides in the eastern Atlantic coastal waters. Atlantic surf clams reproduce in late summer, when the water temperatures peak.
Anomiidae is a family of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs related to scallops and oysters, and known as anomiids. It contains seven genera.
Placunidae, also known as windowpane oysters, windowpane shells, and Capiz shells, are a taxonomic family of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks which are related to oysters and scallops.
Ostrea lurida, common name the Olympia oyster, after Olympia, Washington in the Puget Sound area, is a species of small, edible oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae. This species occurs on the northern Pacific coast of North America. Over the years the role of this edible species of oyster has been partly displaced by the cultivation of non-native edible oyster species.
Anomia is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Anomiidae. They are commonly known as jingle shells because when a handful of them are shaken they make a jingling sound, though some are also known as saddle oysters.
Pinctada maxima is a species of pearl oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. There are two different color varieties: the Gold-lipped oyster and the Silver-lipped oyster. These bivalves are the largest pearl oysters in the world. They have a very strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl" and are important to the cultured pearl industry as they are cultivated to produce South Sea pearls.
Pinctada fucata, the Akoya pearl oyster (阿古屋貝), is a species of marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. Some authorities classify this oyster as Pinctada fucata martensii. It is native to shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region and is used in the culture of pearls.
Pteria penguin, commonly known as the penguin's wing oyster, is a species of marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. It is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific region and is used for the production of cultured pearls. The generic name comes from Greek πτερον (pteron) meaning wing.
Arcuatula senhousia(= Musculista senhousia), commonly known as the Asian date mussel, Asian mussel or bag mussel, is a small saltwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae, the mussels. Other common names for this species include: the Japanese mussel, Senhouse's mussel, the green mussel, and the green bagmussel. It is harvested for human consumption in China.
In Philippine architecture, the capiz shell window is a type of window with small panes that use the translucent and durable capiz shell instead of glass. The Chinese were presumably the first to utilize the shell, the dissemination of which use has been credited to the Portuguese; extensive and widespread use of the shell for windows and other handicraft products as a substitute for the then more scarce and more expensive glass was seen in Portuguese settlements as well as in India in the 17th century.
