News tagged with mussel
Are invasives bad? Not always, researchers say
In 1988, a mysterious invader washed upon the New Jersey shore. The Asian shore crab likely arrived in ballast from commercial ships, and it found its new home to be quite agreeable. More than two decades ...
May 17, 2010 |
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It's the metal in the mussel that gives mussels their muscle power
Researchers in California are reporting for the first time that metals are key ingredients that give the coatings of anchoring byssal threads of marine mussels their amazing durability. The study could lead to the design ...
Apr 08, 2009 |
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Shellfish and inkjet printers may hold key to faster healing from surgeries
Using the natural glue that marine mussels use to stick to rocks, and a variation on the inkjet printer, a team of researchers led by North Carolina State University has devised a new way of making medical adhesives that ...
Mar 18, 2009 |
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A crystal clear view of chalk formation
(PhysOrg.com) -- It has a beautiful, but also an unpleasant side: crystallization determines the shape of precious stones, but also causes the lime scale in washing machines. How this comes about, has been ...
Jan 23, 2009 |
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Scientists discover way to detect low-level exposure to seafood toxin in marine animals
(Phys.org) -- NOAA scientists and their colleagues have discovered a biological marker in the blood of laboratory zebrafish and marine mammals that shows when they have been repeatedly exposed to low levels of domoic acid, ...
May 03, 2012 |
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Biocompatible, waterproof, self-healing, and reversible: A new adhesive for medical applications?
(Phys.org) -- Mussels are true masters of adhesion. They bond solidly under water to nearly any type of surface. Researchers from Mainz have been inspired by mussel adhesive proteins to add another exciting ...
Apr 13, 2012 |
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Chemical-munching mussels contaminating Great Lakes
Zebra mussels from the Caspian Sea, introduced to North America by accident, are becoming a veritable plague releasing toxic chemicals into the Great Lakes, Canadian biologists say.
Oct 01, 2011 |
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Researchers discover freshwater mussel species thought to be extinct
Researchers from the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources have discovered fresh remains of a freshwater mussel species thought to be extinct in Texas, according to a research associate with the ...
Aug 15, 2011 |
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Plant remains link farming to landscape damage in Peru
A study of food remains from ancient settlement sites along the lower Ica valley in Peru, confirms earlier suggestions that farming undermined the natural vegetation so badly that eventually much of the area ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 15, 2011 |
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Wind farm in North Sea has positive net impact on fauna
A North-Sea wind farm has hardly any negative effects on fauna. At most, a few bird species will avoid such a wind farm. It turns out that a wind farm also provides a new natural habitat for organisms living ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Aug 08, 2011 |
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Fossil find gives hope for animal life in 'lost cities'
(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's oceans could be littered with thousands of undiscovered 'lost cities' housing communities of creatures that thrive in some of the Earth's most extreme conditions, a new discovery ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 07, 2011 |
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Invasive mussels causing massive ecological changes in Great Lakes
The ongoing spread of non-native mussels in the Great Lakes has caused "massive, ecosystem-wide changes" throughout lakes Michigan and Huron, two of the planet's largest freshwater lakes, according to a new ...
Apr 13, 2011 |
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Mussel adhesive for DNA chips
Mussels are true masters of adhesion. Whether on the wood of a pier, the metal of a ship’s hull, rocks, or to their own kind, they stick to everything. Researchers led by Philip B. Messersmith at Northwestern ...
Dec 24, 2010 |
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Invisible invasive species
While Asian carp, gypsy moths and zebra mussels hog invasive-species headlines, many invisible invaders are altering ecosystems and flourishing outside of the limelight.
Dec 07, 2010 |
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Scientists find new invasive fresh water clam species in Lake George
(PhysOrg.com) -- The new species (Corbicula fluminea) was located in the Village of Lake George and poses a serious threat to native mussels and the Lake George ecosystem, according to Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, direct ...
Aug 30, 2010 |
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Mussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.
The word "mussel" is most frequently used to mean the edible bivalves of the marine family Mytilidae, most of which live on exposed shores in the intertidal zone, attached by means of their strong byssal threads ("beard") to a firm substrate. A few species (in the genus Bathymodiolus) have colonised hydrothermal vents associated with deep ocean ridges.
In most marine mussels the shell is longer than it is wide, being wedge-shaped or asymmetrical. The external colour of the shell is often dark blue, blackish, or brown, while the interior is silvery and somewhat nacreous.
The word "mussel" is also used for many freshwater bivalves, including the freshwater pearl mussels. Freshwater mussel species inhabit lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks, canals, grouped in a different subclass, despite some very superficial similarities in appearance.
Freshwater Zebra mussels and their relatives in the family Dreissenidae are not related to previously mentioned groups, even though they resemble many Mytilus species in shape, and live attached to rocks and other hard surfaces in a similar manner, using a byssus. They are classified with the Heterodonta, the taxonomic group which includes most of the bivalves commonly referred to as "clams".
For more information about Mussel, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
