Outside of right valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Opposite the Deadman, Cornwall. Length = 22mm.
Pteria hirundo
<em>Pteria hirundo</em> (Linnaeus, 1758)
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Opposite the Deadman, Cornwall. Length = 22mm.
Outside of right valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Opposite the Deadman, Cornwall. Length = 90mm.
Inside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Britain. Length = 79mm.
Outside of left valve
Species
Photographer / copyright holder
Steve Wilkinson
Specimen collected from Britain. Length = 79mm.
Pteria hirundo
Distribution and status
RareDistributed from Britain south to the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean.
Ecology and behaviour
Lives attached by byssus threads on muddy to gravelly bottoms.
Key identification features
- Shell with two 'ears'
- One adductor muscle scar
Taxon version key
[NBNSYS0000186360]
Sort order
9440
Taxonomic group
Marine bivalve
Brittle shell up to about 8cm in length. Grey brown or pale brown in colour with darker radiating rays. The inside of the shell is pearly. The surface is sculptured with concentric scales which may be worn away to lines.