Great scallop
Pecten maximus · The great scallop is an edible marine clam with a ribbed shell that lives in the northeast Atlantic, from northern Norway south to the Iberian Peninsula.
Also called King scallop, St James shell, Escallop.
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Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Mollusca |
| Class | Bivalvia |
| Order | Pectinida |
| Family | Pectinidae |
| Genus | Pecten |
| Species | Pecten maximus |
Where it lives
Sandy and gravelly seabeds from Norway to Spain and the Azores.
Fun facts
- Great scallops have up to 36 simple eyes along the edge of their mantle, in two rows at the base of their tentacles.
- Adult scallops can swim by rapidly opening and closing their shells, though young ones stay attached to surfaces by threads.
- Scallops swim mostly to escape danger, such as hungry starfish that eat molluscs.
- A great scallop digs itself a little hollow by squirting jets of water into the sand, then settles in with only its tentacles and eyes showing.
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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).