Word of the Week: Bivalve

Let’s take a quick journey back to biology class…

Shellfish are separated into two classes, mollusks and crustaceans.

Crustaceans have shells, jointed legs, and they don’t have a backbone.

Critters such as shrimp, crabs, and lobster fall into this category.

Mollusks on the other hand, are a very diverse and ancient group of aquatic life. Today, there are 3 main categories of mollusks.

Cephalopods, like squid and octopus, have no shell and are considered the most intelligent of mollusks.

Gastropods, like snails and slugs, have either a one-part, hard shell or no shell at all.

Lastly, we have Bivalves.

Bivalves are particularly useful to a habitat for two reasons:

1. Their habit of filtering dirty water for breakfast, lunch and dinner removes pollutants and helps improve water quality.

1. Sedentary bivalves like oysters and clams not only are a food source for other organisms, they form structural habitat for other small marine life.

Interested in Bivalves? Volunteer at our Oyster Gardens this summer! https://savethegreatsouthbay.o...

To learn more about our projects to restore bivalves to the Great South Bay in full force, check out this page on our site: https://savethegreatsouthbay.o...

Save The Great South Bay is a local environmental non-profit whose mission is to restore water quality in the Great South Bay for future generations to enjoy. Our Word of the Week initiative aims to make the scientific vocabulary of environmentalism accessible to everyone. View past Words of the Week at www.savethegreatsouthbay.org under News & Events in the Photo Gallery.