Giant clam
Автор:
Jesse Russell,Ronald Cohn, 103 стр., издатель:
"Книга по Требованию", ISBN:
978-5-5084-5223-0
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The giant clam, Tridacna gigas (known as pa’ua in Cook Islands Maori), is the largest living bivalve mollusk. T. gigas is one of the most endangered clam species. Antonio Pigafetta documented these in his journal as early as 1521. One of a number of large clam species native to the shallow coral reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, they can weigh more than 200 kilograms (440 lb), measure as much as 120 cm (47 in) across, and have an average lifespan in the wild of 100 years or more. They are also found off the shores of the Philippines, where they are called taklobo, and in the South China Sea in the coral reefs of Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). T. gigas lives in flat coral sand or broken coral and can be found at depth of as much as 20 m (66 ft). Its range covers the Indo-Pacific, but populations are diminishing quickly and the giant clam has become extinct in many areas where it was once common. T. maxima has the largest geographical...