Fingernail Clam

colour photo of an underwater transparent clam

Fingernail Clam

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Bivalvia

Order: Sphaeriida 

Family: Sphaeriidae

There’s not much that can fit inside of these tiny (the size of your fingernail!) molluscs, but fingernail clams make it work! A thin shell offers some protection and a muscular appendage called a foot helps them to move around. They also use a two-siphon system to live their life: they filter food and oxygen through one siphon and eject waste and indigestible materials out the other.