Where is a clams mouth

The gills produce a sticky, glue-like material called mucus. Food small organisms and food particles becomes trapped in the mucus. The cilia are also responsible for transporting the trapped food to flap-like structures called labial palps. The labial palps gather the food and place it into the clam's mouth. After water passes over the gills, it exits the clam through the excurrent siphon located next to the incurrent siphon.

Filter feeding mollusk process quite a large amount of water. An average oyster filters three liters of water an hour. Clams use their muscular food for digging into the sand or soil forming the bottom of the body of water in which the clam lives. The movement of clams is quite limited, and these are sedentary animals. The nervous system of clams consists of three pairs of ganglia connected by nerve cords. Nerves connect the ganglia and nerve cords to sensory cells.

Different cells are specialized for various functions. Some sense touch. These are located at the edge of the mantle. Light sensors are located on the siphons, and osphradia chemical sensors are located on the incurrent siphon. Clams and all mollusks have a complete digestive system. It consists of a mouth where food is ingested, a short connecting tube called the esophogus, a stomach which temporarily holds food, and an intestine where food digestion and absorption takes place.

A digestive gland surrounds the stomach and releases digestive enzymes into the food within the stomach. Digestion is extracellular. This means that digestive enzymes break food down into food particles and food molecules within the hollow intestine. Food molecules diffuse or are actively transported into the cells lining the intestine.

Food is distributed to the cells of the body by blood. Blood is pumped by the heart into blood vessels. The blood leaves the vessels and flows into cavities called sinuses. Sinuses surround body organs and extend into all parts of the clam.

As the blood moves past the intestine, it picks up food molecules and carries these molecules throughout the clam. Soren: And they'll extend this out of the clam, and they can push themselves along the bottom and use it to dig a hole to help bring themselves into, like, a burrow. Narrator: And some clams are particularly dexterous with their foot. The razor clam, for example, can bury itself 70 centimeters underground. It uses rapid movements of its foot to fluidize the ground around it, essentially turning it into quicksand.

But if you think clam feet are bizarre, check out this thing: the siphon. Siphons are essentially two connected straws that clams stick out of their shells. One pulls in water, which contains food particles and oxygen, and the other expels waste. And none is more impressive than the one belonging to the geoduck clam. It's so big the clam can't even close its shell.

While siphons allow clams to eat and breathe, some clams have another, more advanced tactic for getting nutrients. Instead of just sucking food out of the water, giant clams farm it themselves. Like coral, they have a symbiotic relationship with microalgae. The clams provide algae with a place to live and photosynthesize, and in exchange, algae gives the clam byproducts of photosynthesis, such as sugars, which enables the giant clams to grow, you know, giant.

Now, on rare occasions, there's something else you might find inside a clam: a pearl. That's right, oysters aren't the only pearl producers out there.

Clams, too, will form these shimmering clumps to trap irritants that enter their shells. In fact, a fisherman once found a kilogram pearl inside a giant clam. So, yeah, clams aren't just fascinating; they might also be precious. Plus, they actually play an important role in their environment. However, "clam" is a very wide-ranging term, referring to those creatures of a microscopic size to the giant clam, which can weigh kilograms.

Some have lifecycles of only one year, while at least one has been discovered that may be over years old. Also the word "clam" has different meanings.

It can either refer to all bivalve mollusks. Or, in the more limited sense, it refers to creatures living in the bottom layers of the ocean. Many of the edible clams oval in shape. Their shell consists of two parts, connected by a hinge joint and a ligament. With the help of the ligament both parts can be opened. Clams also have kidneys, a heart, a mouth, a stomach, a nervous system, and an anus.

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