clam
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The giant clam has a siphon with two tubes: one to take in water, the other to expel waste. The water supplies the animal with oxygen and food in the form of tiny plankton.
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A close-up of the two interlocking shells of a giant clam, whose natural habitat is the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Common name for a bivalve mollusc. The giant clam Tridacna gigas of the Indopacific can grow to 1 m/3 ft across in 50 years and weigh, with the shell, 500 kg/1,000 lb.
A giant clam produces a billion eggs in a single spawning.
The term is usually applied to edible species, such as the North American hard clam Venus mercenaria, used in clam chowder, and whose shells were formerly used as money by North American Indians. A giant clam may produce a billion eggs in a single spawning.
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