🐚Hard clam

Mercenaria mercenaria (Linnaeus, 1758)

The hard clam, also known as the round clam, hard-shell clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams. Older literature sources may use the systematic name Venus mercenaria; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Measurements

Conservation status

Not evaluated

The IUCN Red List has not assessed Mercenaria mercenaria yet.

Key measurements

Body mass: not recorded
Body length: 0.13 m
Shoulder height: not recorded
Top speed: not recorded
Bite force: not recorded
Maximum lifespan: 106 years

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Hard clam

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body length

0.13 mmaximum recorded, total length

SeaLifeBase

Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Maximum lifespan

106 yearsrecord 9 years · SeaLifeBase

AnAge

Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Record: largest individual on record

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Not recorded for Hard clam yet: body mass, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

Full lineage

phylumMolluscs · Mollusca
classClams, mussels & oysters · Bivalvia
familyVeneridae
genusMercenaria

All 9 branches ↓

kingdomMetazoa
phylumMolluscs · Mollusca
classClams, mussels & oysters · Bivalvia
subclassHeterodonta
superorderImparidentia
orderVenerida
superfamilyVeneroidea
familyVeneridae
genusMercenaria

More about the Hard clam

In other languages

Amerikaanse venusschelp (nl), ホンビノスガイ (ja), kampavenussimpukka (fi), صدف دوکفه‌ای سفت (fa), 蚌蠣 (zh), Mercenaria mercenaria (bg) … and 12 more languages

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