photo sources: https://www.geo.arizona.edu/ceam/Hecold/hecolcd.htm
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/10/colorado-rivers-dead-clams-tell-tales-carbon-emission
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The Colorado Delta was one of the great deltas of the world. After decades of Colorado water being routed for human use, flows decreased, salinity increased and the ecosystem began to collapse. The river usually no longer reaches the sea. The clam Mulinia modesta was once the dominant species in the area, with 25-50 clams per square meter, but is now rare. Piles ("cheniers") of trillions of their shells can be seen today, a monument to a tremendous environmental crime. #clamFacts
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Western Society of Malacologists offers a grant of $1000 for students undertaking malacological research!
https://westernsocietymalacology.org/grants/james-h-mclean-student-grant-in-collections-based-research
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Researchers find a protein in the hemolymph (analogous to blood) of Australian oysters which has antimicrobial properties, including against biofilms of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a common cause of pneumonia. The oysters likely evolved the peptide to help prevent infection by similar microbes, and the discovery could help down the road in the development of antibiotics and antiseptics useful to humans! #clamFacts
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/21/australia-sydney-rock-oyster-blood-drug-resistant-superbug-bacteria-antibiotics
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We say someone is "clamming up" if they're staying silent. But real-world clams have all sorts of reasons to "clam up" aside from self-protection! They'll close their shells rapidly to force out poop, or clear off uneaten particles on their gills ("valve clapping"), or even when they're releasing their gametes! Some clams use that expelled water from closing to clear sand around them when digging, and scallops close their valves to generate jet propulsion for swimming! #clamFacts
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Olympia oysters were once prolific in San Francisco Bay, but were decimated by overharvesting and poor water quality. Now groups like The Watershed Project are trying to give them a hand by installing reef balls made with recycled shell material. Baby oysters love to settle on shell, since they're evolved to build reefs on the shells of their ancestors! Really nice article about the project and pics from a time I admired their efforts #clamFacts
https://richmondside.org/2025/01/13/oyster-restoration-richmond-east-bay/
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The Museum of the Earth, which hosts a world-famous paleontological collection and research staff, is at imminent risk of closure due to a funding shortfall
https://ithacavoice.org/2025/01/museum-of-the-earth-faces-extinction-under-imminent-threat-of-foreclosure/
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Let it be known that this is an antifascist novelty clam account
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I feel like it's a growing cliché for pop science sites to include an AI picture of "cells with menacing pseudopodia" in articles about cancer
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A new study finds radium is bioaccumulating in mussels in streams near fracking fields in Pennsylvania. The waste effluent produced by fracking operations is rich in radioactive materials including radium. It is harmful to the mussels and accumulates up the food chain, leading to us. The mussels are sentinels of the radioactive legacy of the fossil fuel industry, which actually produces more radioactive waste than the nuclear industry #clamFacts
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02012025/elevated-levels-of-radium-found-in-western-pennsylvanias-freshwater-mussels/
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Trying to reprogram all my algorithmic feeds to just show me capybara content
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Many have tried to figure out the answer, but we still don't fully understand how clams are so cool.
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Dozens were sickened by norovirus from oysters at an LA Times food event, which appears to be linked to a broader outbreak and recall originating from British Columbia. Raw oysters can transmit norovirus if they live in water contaminated by sewage. Cooking them to 145F/62C does kill the virus! #clamFacts
https://abcnews.go.com/US/raw-oysters-linked-norovirus-outbreak-leaves-80-sickened/story?id=116966527
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source study available here, one of my all-time faves https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0047
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Imagine you have a foot that secretes acid, which you use to dissolve away solid rock to make a burrow. Now imagine some scientists want to prove you do this. They put some pH-sensing foil under you and really hope you'll cooperate and leave your footprint on it. You chuckle and do so, leaving a funny smooch-shaped impression on the foil. This is how it was proven that the boring giant clam uses acid to make its burrow, decreasing local pH by ~2 units! #clamFacts
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TIL the stable isotopes of barnacles were used to track the temperatures experienced by a piece of floating debris from the MH370 plane crash, which in turn helped reconstruct the path of the debris! This approach works because carbonate-shelled organisms like barnacles (and clams!) have a temperature dependent relationship in the ratios of isotopes oxygen-18 and 16 in their shells!
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023AV000915
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Clams are considered challenging animals to keep in aquaria. They can be cryptic, both in terms of burying, and not showing stress until it's too late. Some can starve for months before suddenly dying and causing a pulse of ammonia. If they are filter feeders, they may need a varied diet of phytoplankton to thrive, which means keeping plankton cultures. Giant clams are an exception- since they are photosynthetic, they can thrive under bright lights! #clamFacts
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Photo source: https://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Molluscs/Chlamydoconcha%20orcutti/index.html
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I used to think clams were united by living in a two-valved external shell. That's before I learned about naked clams. Clamydoconcha orcutti has an internal shell! Its mantle has extended to completely surround the shell, which is now effectively an endoskeleton. These little clams are often found in intertidal areas and are quite nimble, hopping around with an agile foot #clamFacts
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h/t to @llewelly for bringing this up.
Photo by skatingflamingo on inaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180989450
Source study on siphon toxin: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01319408
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