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Related Keywords
- Aggressive mimicry
- Animal
- Bathymodiolus
- Bay of Biscay
- Belgian beer
- Bhatkal
- Biological classification
- Bivalvia
- Blue mussel
- Breadfruit
- Breading
- Byssal thread
- Byssus
- Calcium carbonate
- California
- California mussel
- Calories
- Cantonese cuisine
- Carbohydrate
- Cilia
- Clam
- Common name
- Conchin
- Cornwall
- Cyst
- Dietary fiber
- Dinoflagellate
- Dog whelk
- Dreissenidae
- Dwarf wedgemussel
- FAO
- Fat
- Filter feeders
- Fish market
- Folate
- Foreshore
- French fries
- French language
- Freshwater mussel
- Freshwater pearl
- Freshwater pearl mussel
- Gastropod
- Gill
- Glochidium
- Goa
- Gonochorism
- Heterodonta
- Humans
- Hydrothermal vents
- Kerala
- Maharashtra
- Mollusca
- Moringa oleifera
- Moules frites
- Muricidae
- Muscle
- Mytilidae
- Mytilus edulis
- Nacre
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Northern California
- Norway
- Ocean Beach
- Oyster
- Palaeoheterodonta
- Paralytic shellfish poisoning
- Periostracum
- Plankton
- Predatory
- Protein
- Pteriomorphia
- Recommended daily value
- Red Tide
- San Francisco
- Saturated fat
- Sea star
- Selenium
- Shellfish
- Shish
- Sodium
- Turkey
- Vinaigrette
- Vitamin B12
- Wartime rationing
- Zebra mussel
- Zebra mussels
- Zinc
Mussels
Images : Mussels
General Description
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".

