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Freshwater bivalve species vary greatly in size. Some pea clams (genus Pisidium) have an adult size of only 3 mm (0.12 in). In contrast, one of the largest species of freshwater bivalves is the swan mussel from the family Unionidae; it can grow to a length of 20 cm (7.9 in), and usually lives in lakes or slow-flowing rivers.
An Eocene species Superlucina megameris was the largest lucinid ever recorded, with shell size up to 31.1 centimetres (12.2 in) high, over 28 centimetres (11 in) wide and 8.6 centimetres (3.4 in) thick. [3]
The shells of bivalves are used in craftwork, and the manufacture of jewellery and buttons. Bivalves have also been used in the biocontrol of pollution. Bivalves appear in the fossil record first in the early Cambrian more than 500 million years ago. The total number of known living species is about 9,200. These species are placed within 1,260 ...
Individuals of this species typically reached 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or more in axial length, but some exceptional specimens 3 m (9 ft 10 in) long have been found, [1] making it the largest known bivalve. Its huge but very thin shell often provided shelter for schools of small fish, some of which became trapped and fossilised themselves.
The Registry of World Record Size Shells is a conchological work listing the largest (and in some cases smallest) verified shell specimens of various marine molluscan taxa.A successor to the earlier World Size Records of Robert J. L. Wagner and R. Tucker Abbott, it has been published on a semi-regular basis since 1997, changing ownership and publisher a number of times.
The ability for Tridacna to grow to such large sizes with fleshy mantles that extend beyond the edges of their shells is considered to be the result of total reorganization of bivalve development and morphology. [8] Historically, two evolutionary explanations have been suggested for this process.
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. [1] [2]The range of distribution for this family is world-wide.
Trigoniidae is a taxonomic family of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks in the superfamily Trigonioidea.There is only one living genus, Neotrigonia, but in the geological past this family was well represented, widespread and common.