Published on The Arboretum (https://arboretum.uoguelph.ca)

Fingernail Clam

Body:

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.

Page category:

Insects, Mammals, and More [1]

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The land where The Arboretum now grows has been home to plants and animals for thousands of years. It was home to Indigenous peoples long before settlers arrived. We recognize the traditional, ancestral, and treaty lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Attawandaron, and Mississaugas of the Credit peoples, as well as the Dish with One Spoon covenant covering the Between the Lakes Treaty 3 lands on which the University of Guelph and The Arboretum now sit. We are honoured to work on and care for this land.

Source URL:https://arboretum.uoguelph.ca/fingernail-clam

Links
[1] https://arboretum.uoguelph.ca/page-category/insects-mammals-and-more