If you walk barefoot in shallow water at low tide, you can suddenly feel a sharp pain. It occurs due to cuts by the shell of mollusks from the family Solenidae. They live in sandy or soft soil in shallow areas of sea coasts, with the exception of water bodies located in cold climatic zones.
About this amazing animal, marine cuttings, and a short story is presented here. Often it is called a "pocket knife", it is also known under the name "sea scabbard."
Sea stalk: description, photo
A clam hides in an oblong, resembling pieces of bamboo stalks sink. In restaurants in Hong Kong, the sea cuttings are presented under the same name - Scottish bamboo. In Europe, it is called a clam-razor, or simply a blade.
In the southern habitat, this species of mollusk has a narrow elongated shell. He hides in the sand, exposing only a small part of his house, the length of which reaches about 20 centimeters (the shape of a mollusk shell is saber). In Alaska, a specimen was found having a length of 28 cm.
Its meat, which has virtually no carbohydrates and fats, contains 106 kilocalories.
There are three varieties of cuttings; they differ in the shape of shells. Their average life expectancy reaches 10 years.
Habitat
Today marine cuttings (bivalves) live along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, in its northeastern part. They are found in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, and some species live in the warm waters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
The American species of mollusk used to live only on the eastern shores of North America. In all likelihood, being in the form of a larva, he ended up in one of Germany's bays. At the mouth of the Elbe was discovered in 1978. Gradually, his colonies spread to the shores of Southern England and Northern France, as well as to the coasts of the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits in Sweden.
In soft sandy and silty sediments, the density of this population is quite high. Up to 1.5 thousand cuttings can live on just 14 square meters of soil. When fishing nets fall into such places, they are indented.
Features of lifestyle, habits
The cuttings spend the bulk of their long lives buried deep in the sand, which hides them from the eyes of enemies.
In some species of cuttings, the shells of the mollusk shells are straight; in others, they are slightly curved. The flaps are connected by a lock muscle. In live mollusks, shells are covered with an olive-green or brownish layer of a substance that contains protein. Only after the death of the animal it erases, and the shells become yellowish-white, smooth, with a visible outline of the growth lines of a reddish or green hue.
Respiratory water siphons are located at the back of the shell, and in front of the mollusk between the shell flaps stretches its leg muscle. The animal is buried deep in sand or silt with the help of a leg, which is greatly lengthened and bored. Only the tip attached to the soil remains on the surface. Inside the sand, the mollusk moves further horizontally. It can also move, making rotational movements around its axis, screw-like. It bows and moves quickly.
At high tide, the stalk puts out two siphons, with the help of which it pumps water into itself, and in this way receives food and oxygen.
In the absence of danger, a sea cuttings may not move at all. Only when the water recedes does it bury rather deeply. And his presence gives out a small hole, from where a trickle of water mixed with sand sometimes comes out (therefore it is sometimes called a shell-spittoon). At high tide, a couple of siphons can be seen on the surface of the soil.
When there is a danger of danger, the sea stalk rests its foot on the bottom and makes jumps at distances of several centimeters.
When you try to get this marine life out of the sand, it burrows even deeper, releasing a stream of water. Empty shells are more common on the coast. The number of grooves on them indicates the age of the cuttings.
Nutrition sea cuttings
The muddy water of the shallow sea coasts contains the remains of the bodies of various decomposed plants and animals, as well as the larvae and eggs of aquatic animals. The cuttings of the sea filter all of this out of the water with the help of their proboscis. It draws water from the sea into the mantle through a siphon and, thanks to muscle contractions, drives it through the mesh gills. Nutrient particles remaining on the gills, and constitute the diet of the mollusk. All this food on the surface of the gills is wrapped in mucus with the help of small vibrating eyelashes and transferred to the "conveyor", which feeds the mouth.
Due to the inactivity of this animal, its need for food intake is extremely small.
A little bit about clam mining methods
In some countries, shellfish are delicacies. However, to extract them from the sea soil is rather unsafe and tiring. For example, the Spanish mollusk collectors (Navarra in the northwestern province), to get them with their own hands, dive without oxygen masks to a depth of 10 meters.
A safer way of mining is at low tide. But this is also a rather tedious task, which requires great patience and caution. Mollusks burrow very deep at the slightest tremor.
