Blue mussel

Mytilus edulis · The blue mussel is a boreo-temperate invertebrate that lives in intertidal areas, attached to rocks and other hard substrates by byssal threads.

Also called Common mussel.

Blue mussel
Photo: Tim Binns from Tomahawk, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0
Blue mussel
Photo: Olivier Dugornay, CC BY 4.0
Blue mussel
Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumMollusca
ClassBivalvia
OrderMytilida
FamilyMytilidae
GenusMytilus
SpeciesMytilus edulis

Where it lives

Rocky shores and shallow seabeds of the North Atlantic.

Fun facts

  • Blue mussels can detach and reattach themselves to rocks, letting them reposition to better suit the water conditions.
  • Although fertilized by roughly 10,000 sperm per egg, as few as 1% of mussel larvae that mature ever reach adulthood.
  • When predators lurk nearby, mussels can thicken their shells by 5 to 10 percent, making them take 50 percent longer to pry open.
  • Mussels can fend off one predator species at a time, but face two attackers together and their defenses fail, making them easy prey.

Play it

The Blue mussel was the creature in a regional daily on November 12, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

Play today's creature or replay a past daily

Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).