GIANT CLAM SHELL. ...

Description

GIANT CLAM SHELL
Tridacna gigas
Australia
The giant clam is native to the warm seas of the Indo-Pacific region and known traditionally to the Pacific Islanders as Pa'ua. Pa-ua is the name of the second of the children of Puna, King of the Underworld in Polynesian and Hawaiian myth. The Pa'ua can grow up to 4 feet across, weighing over 440lb, and they enjoy an average life span of 100 years or more, although they are entirely sessile in adulthood, meaning that they are unable to move about. The brightly colored mantle that lines the inside of the shell acts as a habitat for symbiotic single-celled algae from which the clam gets its nutrition; by day, the shell opens up to allow the algae to receive the sunlight they require for photosynthesis. Of an elegant, undulating form, the exterior of this present example displays an evocative rough ocean texture, and even has some remains of the connective tissue that hinged the two halves of the shell in life; both halves are present and each measures approximately 34 inches across.

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