What are mussels? Detailed answer

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What are mussels? Detailed answer

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What are mussels?

If you ever happen to wander along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at low tide, you will see a very interesting sight. All over the shallows will lie thousands of black shells, which are called mussels. Mussels are similar to other bivalves in many ways. But they have one distinguishing feature: they can attach themselves to all kinds of objects, such as rocks, other shells, and sand. This is done with a device called "byssus", produced by a gland located in the "leg", at the narrow end of the mussel, and similar to a bundle of threads.

Mussels are bivalve shells, meaning they have two shells. But, unlike oysters, they don't have the muscles that hold these shells together. The surface of the mussel is smooth, which also distinguishes them from oysters, which have a rough shell. Freshwater mussels do not have byssus and therefore cannot attach themselves to rocks. Mussels breathe and feed through a tube called a siphon, which is divided by a partition into two parts - upper and lower. When water passes through the siphon, the gills take oxygen from it, and the mussel breathes. The small "mouth" in the siphon captures food that floats by.

During the breeding season, the female mussel lays millions of eggs. She carries these little black eggs under her gills until little mussels hatch from them. The hatched larvae are able to swim for several days, but soon the resulting shell becomes too heavy and they settle to the bottom. There are thousands of varieties of mussels, but the two main ones are sea mussels and freshwater mussels. Sea mussels reach a length of about five centimeters, freshwater - larger.

Mussels are of commercial importance primarily in Europe. Their shells, which have a pale blue mother-of-pearl coating inside, are used to make buttons. Sometimes pearls are found in freshwater mussels, but they are usually very imperfect in shape.

Author: Likum A.

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