Dr. Dan Killam

Environmental scientist and clammunicator

Provider of #ClamFacts

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Last Notes

2026-10-30 21:15:22 GMT

For Halloween at work I was an invasive golden mussel/muscle. A little too scary of a costume possibly (too soon?) and to lay it on thick, I settled on some of the oyster reef balls in the lobby.
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2026-10-29 14:19:18 GMT

The Musselshell River in Montana was given its name by the Lewis and Clark expedition, who had seen plentiful freshwater mussels (Unionida) on its banks. The local Hidatsa tribe calls it the Moonshell River #clamFacts
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2026-10-23 00:50:26 GMT

When European cockles (Cerastoderma edule) are young, they attach with byssal threads to algae and other objects. Sometimes this carries them to new places (phoresis)! A new paper discusses that they sometimes also are observed attached to the whiskers of seals. No word on if they attach to the beards of clam men. #clamFacts
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2026-10-22 23:04:38 GMT

The kelp scallop, as its name suggests, attaches to kelp with byssal threads. It can see, and if threatened by a potential predator, can detach itself to swim away, clapping its valves to generate jet propulsion! #clamFacts https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63144992

2026-10-19 19:58:17 GMT

Many bivalves and other mollusks have a planktonic veliger stage, when they possess a wing-like organ called a velum, which I like to imagine making little helicopter noises. The velum is covered by cilia which beat from a few to hundreds of times per second, channeling food towards them and helping them swim around in the water column! #clamFacts https://youtu.be/J3urhZ8LJkA?is=R73I_RXQNqwdbqlW

2026-10-19 18:15:26 GMT

As a science communicator, when people are curious and ask a genuine question about something, it fills me with joy and excitement. The best questions also leave me totally stumped.
When people assume they know something and offer an uninformed opinion without doing even a basic web search to check if they're wrong, that fills me with frustration.
In the middle there lies a vast gray area of "just asking questions" and "do your own research"

2026-10-15 21:05:50 GMT

One of the most fascinating papers of the year for me is a study that used oxygen isotopes to track season of harvesting of top snails and limpets by Neanderthals in what is now Spain, 115,000 years ago. The researchers found the snails were mostly harvested in the winter months. There are many possible reasons, including that Neanderthals might have moved inland to hunt terrestrial animals in the summer, sticking to the coast in the winter. But interestingly, summer is a time that modern Europeans avoid consuming some species due to the risk of harmful algal toxin contamination, and the snails also might have been more palatable in the winter to Neanderthals, as that is the season they're bulking up before spring reproduction. Maybe all of the above! Either way, really cool to see that the wealth of the sea unites us with our cousins/ancestors, the Neanderthals. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2531880123
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2026-10-13 16:39:40 GMT

Some fish species also use rocks to smash open bivalve shells! #clamFacts
https://youtu.be/85fmnY2AAsI?t=54&is=RE9rHuCXaB0vcEWp

2026-10-12 19:06:10 GMT

There are a lot of ways to break open a clam. One method is with stone tools, and the marsh mongoose, Atilax paludinosus, uses all sorts of strategies to break open shells, including hurling them down on "anvil stones". Sea otters do something similar, carrying a rock they use to break shells. Research has shown this tool use is associated with brain size across mammals, with the marsh mongoose having the highest "encephalization index" among the mongooses (mongeese?). These associations may apply to us as well, since early hominins ate plenty of bivalves! So we might have to partially thank clams for pushing us to be smarter! #clamFacts
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2026-10-08 22:47:49 GMT

New solar-powered clam just dropped, part of a small club that partner with algae in their bodies for food! Geloina expansa lives in mangroves in South Asia and farms algae called zooxanthellae in its gills, the same type that corals partner with in a process called photosymbiosis. This is a major topic of research interest for me, so I always drop everything when a new paper about bivalve photosymbiosis comes out. Almost all photosymbiotic bivalves, including giant clams, are in the cockle family, but G. expansa is now among the <5 extant species from other bivalve families. #clamFacts https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s44289-026-00168-8
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2026-10-05 17:56:10 GMT

I wrote a blog (and crunched some numbers) about the spread of golden mussels across California over the last couple years! These mussels have me shook.
http://dantheclamman.blog/2026/10/05/how-golden-mussels-are-conquering-the-golden-state/

2026-10-02 21:32:19 GMT

Many bivalves live colonially. But how do the floating plankton larvae know where to settle? Researchers have determined that when baby mussels smell the pheromones of adult mussels, they are up to 85 times more likely to settle down and attach themselves! #clamFacts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385110125000796

2026-10-02 13:34:27 GMT

Blue and green are rare colors for shells (and rare across life in general). A new study finds blue shells may be due to carotenoid pigments, while green is due to structural coloration! https:// www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-61670-9 #clamFacts
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2026-09-05 18:48:36 GMT

San Francisco has insane wealth. Yet it's about to close its only marine science station. The zoo has suffered decades of mismanagement. Same for the Aquarium of the Bay. The Cal Academy is existentially threatened. SF should be a world-leading home for natural sciences. What went wrong?

2026-09-05 18:41:21 GMT

A new study found that when they sense parasitic flatworms in their vicinity, mussels stop filtering to avoid infection. Even more interestingly, they also stop filtering when they detect periwinkles that are an intermediate host for the flatworm. "Oh God, those filthy periwinkles are back, everyone clam up!" #clamFacts
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1140674

2026-08-28 22:30:30 GMT

Out: megadonors
Back in: Megalodon (both the clams and the sharks)

2026-08-24 17:23:22 GMT

Over the last few years, a meme has been growing on Reddit, Tiktok and elsewhere that bivalves have a decentralized enough nervous system that they count as vegan. I am not vegan, and I think bivalves are an excellent, sustainable food source, but I am trying to fight this misconception because it's just incorrect. Clams are not vegetables, folks. This is the hill I will die on.

2026-08-20 03:11:23 GMT

"In a behavior called “shelling,” bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) can chase fish into large empty sea snail shells, stick their beak inside to trap the fish, and then raise the shell to the water’s surface where the fish slides out into the dolphin’s mouth."
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dolphin-mother-and-calf-observed-using-shells-to-catch-fish-in-australia/

2026-08-17 19:14:24 GMT

If a scientist isn't able to see data and understand and accept that it disproves a favored hypothesis of theirs, they're no longer doing science. I've seen multiple otherwise great researchers fall into this trap. It's not a new observation, but it's often miscast as scientists needing to be "dispassionate" and "objective" about their data. For me personally, it involves being just as fascinated and excited about being wrong as I am about the times I am right.

2026-08-17 16:00:38 GMT

When you hold a shell to your ear, your ear hears the resonation of thousands of environmental noises. But your brain hears the sea. Our ocean is the resonator of our planet. Your brain is right. #clamFacts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seashell_resonance?wprov=sfla1

2026-08-12 15:23:29 GMT

Researchers have confirmed another member in the small but growing club of carnivorous plants, Saxifraga candelabrum! These little herbs live in mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan in China. Their genus was hypothesized by Darwin (a noted carnivorous plant stan) to eat insects based on their habit of trapping bugs in sticky hairs, but catching bugs doesn't necessarily mean they're *eating* them. But we have science to prove it!
In their new study, the team confirmed plants that catch more insects grow more flowers. They make extra good-smelling volatile compounds from their flowers especially to attract more bugs! This is an unusual strategy since most carnivore plants make long flower stalks isolated from their traps, since it's not profitable to kill your pollinators! But here, the researchers found large insects aren't caught by the hairs and are able to successfully pollinate the flowers, while little flies are grabbed and eaten.
The researchers found enzymes that digest the prey and also were able to trace the digestion through nitrogen isotope tagging! Much of the assimilated nitrogen from prey ended up in the flowers.
Lastly, the researchers found parts of the genome of S. candelabra had been expanded relative to its close non-carnivorous relatives, in ways paralleling other carnivorous plant species like sundews.
As a carnivorous plant lover myself, it's fascinating to find a plant that evolved to give its flowering a leg up by using the flowers themselves as a bug trap. A somewhat risky tightrope to walk, enabling it to thrive in a nutrient poor alpine environment! Overall, a slam-dunk identification of carnivory that sounds like it'll stick!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75288-y
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2026-08-09 18:14:44 GMT

The Po River Delta in Italy was a huge Manila clam fishery in the 20th century. The clams are native to Asia as their name suggests, but they thrived in huge numbers in coastal lagoons of the Po estuary. They became a huge part of Italian cuisine. Recently, clam harvests have declined 70% due to the introduction of Atlantic blue crabs, which have taken well to the Adriatic and exploded in population, merrily eating the clams by peeling their shells open. One invasion after another, but so far blue crab has not been adopted as a staple in Italian cooking, partially because of their horror at the loss of the clams. I get it! #clamFacts https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/an-american-blue-crab-took-over-italian-lagoons-now-fishers-are-looking-for-new-careers/

2026-08-04 01:08:49 GMT

Giant clams love light. As a general rule, the more light they can get for their symbiotic algae, the better. Some species will even continue to photosynthesize in air for hours exposed by the tide, since their photosynthesis provides them some oxygen. Which makes the "devil clam" (Tridacna mbalavuana) from Tonga and Fiji so weird. It lives up to 100 ft down! The super clear waters where it's found allow it to live as a kind of counterpart to mesophotic corals, which are able to photosynthesize even far from the sunlit surface. Since they are so rare, the devil clams are not well studied, but researchers determined it is able to compensate for its very deep lifestyle through some of the greatest photosynthetic efficiency known from giant clams! #clamFacts https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/479982-Tridacna-mbalavuana

2026-07-24 16:53:43 GMT

Clams can integrate all sorts of toxins from the phytoplankton they eat. Some prominent marine ones include paralytic shellfish poisoning, amnesic shellfish poisoning, and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. There are dozens of known toxins around the world. In freshwater they can accumulate microcystin, which damages the liver. Before collecting clams for eating, always check for warnings from the local water quality or public health agency! #clamFacts

2026-07-23 15:14:41 GMT

For some reason I had never considered that peanuts are actually the product of a fruit that grows under the ground. It's called geocarpy. The flowers are pollinated and the pods drop down to the ground as "pegs", growing into the soil. To me, this is absolutely crazy. Peanuts are crazy.
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2026-07-20 21:52:02 GMT

I have to pay increasing attention to what my phone does to pictures it takes. For example, my new Motorola phone includes a super zoom feature that actually uses generative AI to fill in details as it crops in! I turned it off, but others might not notice and upload such digitally created images to iNaturalist, where they'd actually impact scientific research
https://petapixel.com/2026/07/20/scientists-warn-wildlife-photographers-ai-enhanced-bird-photos-could-threaten-research/

2026-07-19 20:16:45 GMT

Was trying to think of a tie-in post between clams and soccer and honestly folks, I got nothin

2026-07-13 15:45:54 GMT

Once zebra or quagga mussels get into a water body, it is very difficult to remove them. Many common molluscicides like copper or chlorine are also very harmful to other life forms. Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CL145A is a bacterium that produces a toxin highly specific to zebra and quagga mussels. It can be released as dead cells near the mussels, which ingest it, with the toxin destroying their digestive system. In this way it is similar to Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), which is valued for its very specific toxicity to certain insect pests. CL145A is specific enough that it has been used to kill zebra mussels smothering native freshwater mussels, leaving the native mussel unharmed! It is sold as a product called Zequanox, which hasn't been a huge hit due to its comparative expense compared to other solutions. It also can reduce dissolved oxygen in the water when applied indiscriminately. Scientists are trying to find similar targeted solutions that will kill invasive golden mussels, currently spreading through aqueducts and reservoirs in California. #clamFacts
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2025/05/01/marrone-golden-mussels.html?rel=plus

2026-07-06 17:48:29 GMT

Bivalve hinges have to be very resilient, considering the animal's very existence depends on keeping the valves attached and articulated. One team of researchers mechanically opened and closed a freshwater mussel shell 1.5 million times, finding no signs of cracking or deformation from the strain! They found that the mussel uses a fan-shaped structure between the valves to deflect stresses. In the crystal of the shell, a complex fabric of mineral fibers are wrapped in organic materials that act kind of like the reinforcing rebar of concrete, to allow the structure to deform rather than fracture. Engineers could use this as inspiration for more resilient hinge designs! #clamFacts https://en.ustc.edu.cn/info/1150/5111.htm
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2026-07-04 21:57:27 GMT

In 1764, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that when he was sick with smallpox, he ate 30 oysters to try to get better. I can't find any evidence that oysters have special therapeutic value against smallpox, though they are rich in zinc, which is an essential mineral for the immune system! #clamFacts
https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17640504ja

2026-07-03 16:55:54 GMT

Georges Bank is a broad elevated area separating the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic. It has long been a desirable fishing location, and it is ideal habitat for scallops, with its sandy bottom and elevated position in the path of currents delivering phytoplankton food. But in recent years, the northern edge has been closed to scallop fishing. Scallop populations have been plateauing or falling across the Bank, and underwater surveys have determined that the northern edge of the Bank is an important site that scallops swim to and aggregate for mating, helping seed populations of scallops across the broader bank as a whole. Unfortunately after lobbying by fishermen, the Trump administration has now decided to throw that science out the window and ordered that area be opened for scallop harvesting, prioritizing short term profits over preserving an important New England seafood resource for future generations. #clamFacts https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-lowers-regulatory-burdens-fishing-adviser-navarro-says-2026-07-02/
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2026-06-27 21:03:48 GMT

Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) are our native oyster in estuaries on the West coast of North America. They are marvels of evolution, able to survive extreme swings in salinity and turbidity often seen in their native environment. As another adaptation to their extreme habitat, they brood their young within their shell for a couple weeks to a month, to increase their chances of survival. Some years, they may be nearly wiped out by extreme high flow events, and they maximize their chances of finding a mate during the following interval by alternating sexes annually (sequential hermaphroditism). There were once billions of these oysters in SF Bay in huge reefs, where they were harvested sustainably for thousands of years by native peoples, who produced enormous shell mounds as ceremonial monuments to their relationship with the Bay. But in the era of colonization they were almost wiped out by overharvesting, introduced predators/diseases, pollution and habitat destruction. These days the vast majority of farmed oysters are Japanese oysters, which grow faster and reach much bigger size. Nevertheless, Olympia oysters persist and can be found all throughout the Bay in somewhat sparse concentrations, biding their time for when conditions are more to their favor. I have full faith they will inherit the Bay after we're gone! #clamFacts
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2026-06-21 21:45:37 GMT

Ophiocordyceps is iconic for its ability to infect ants and change their nervous system to force them to climb high, where the fungus can fruit and spread spores to infect more ants.
Pleurocordyceps is a hyperparasitic fungus that eats Ophiocordyceps. It isn't really a friend to the ants, since it has no interest in fully wiping out its host. But it makes for an interesting dynamic, and I continue to think it would make an interesting Alien movie or Last of Us sequel to introduce a hyperparasite to interact with the titular monsters!
A new species from Borneo, Pleurocordyceps cornusynnemata, named for its fruiting bodies looking like little horns, was just described for the first time! https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-hyperparasite-malaysia-borneo-jungle.html
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2026-06-20 15:03:31 GMT

The best discussion of the actual biology of the Reflecting Pool algal bloom I've seen so far, including descriptions and microscope pics from GMU professor Rosalina Stancheva Christova. The green algae Desmodesmus is taking advantage of warm water, fresh nutrients and a lack of competition in the new pool water to explode in population! In this way it's analogous to weeds proliferating in disturbed soils. If there's anything I've learned about algae, it will usually do the opposite of what we hope it will do! Algae is truly ungovernable!
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/19/nx-s1-5863044/dc-reflecting-pool-algae-green-trump
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2026-06-15 22:50:36 GMT

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Instead of saying "I feel clammy", say "I feel poikilothermic and moisturized"

2026-06-15 22:22:13 GMT

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2026-06-12 23:38:24 GMT

Unpopular opinion: the reflecting pool is dumb and it's silly to fight algae growing in a shallow warm artificial pool. Lean into the algae growing aspect and make it a giant algal culture raceway.
Even more ridiculous idea: make it deeper and put some clams in there. Just an experiment idea.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/12/algae-resurfaces-in-reflecting-pool-multi-million-dollar-renovation-00960609
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2026-06-12 16:08:01 GMT

Clams have a lot of lessons for these times. Everything wants to destroy them, and sometimes the clams fight back, but mostly they win by building back harder, working together to engineer the environment they want to live in. They play a long game and they continue to win.

2026-06-09 17:19:36 GMT

Giant clams produce ~8 kg/cm2 of closure pressure (114 psi), less than a human bite. So you'd feel a big pinch if one closed on you, but not dangerous! They generally don't want you in their shells with them, so they'll reopen if you keep still, and large clams often can't close completely. However, since their shells are so heavy, their adductor muscles must be very resilient, sustaining >500 kg of tension for mature individuals! #clamFacts

2026-06-08 18:43:35 GMT

Contrary to their name, American oystercatchers don't *just* eat oysters. In one study, around 1/3 of their diet was actually sand crabs. But they do eat a lot of bivalves, using their chisel-like, fast-growing bills to smash or pry open oysters, mussels and other intertidal bivalves! Murder! 🫣 #clamFacts
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2026-05-31 00:08:43 GMT

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@nprofile…gydw @nprofile…csjr anyone can do it (:)

2026-05-30 16:48:46 GMT

Pulse oximetry has previously been noted to have a bias against people with higher skin melanin content. It over-measures blood oxygen for Black people and others with more melanin, because most oximeters were calibrated for people with light skin. This can lead to someone with a real blood O2 reading of 91% reading as 94%. A new study shows that has led to different levels of follow-up care, with Black patients being less likely to receive supplemental oxygen as a result of this systematic mismeasurement. I was recently caring for my mom when she had a severe infection. During the recovery phase, she had supplemental oxygen at home and I literally had a pulse oximeter hanging on my neck like a pendant, taking spot checks frequently of her oxygen. It was already scary enough and I can't imagine not being able to trust the readings of what should be a life-saving device! This is why systemic racism is so insidious and pops up in all sorts of subtle but fundamental ways, especially when science is contaminated by the racist thinking! It makes me wonder what other effects this has had? Has this contributed to the known under-diagnosis of Black patients with sleep apnea? It's scary to think about.
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2026/05/pulse-oximeter-bias-black-patients-follow-up-care

2026-05-30 00:14:30 GMT

Oysters are often farmed in floating cages or bags. This way they are protected from many predators, and floating near the surface they are always among the the tasty phytoplankton that are their preferred food, rather than having to wait for the plankton to sink to the bottom! #clamFacts
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2026-05-28 16:57:07 GMT

I don't supplement CO2 in my aquarium, so it is a limiting factor for the plants in there, as it is in many freshwater aquatic ecosystems. For a long time, the tapegrass Vallisneria spiralis dominated in the tank. Its cheat code is that it can use bicarbonate (HCO3-) as a carbon source for photosynthesis. It uses an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, to transform the plentiful bicarbonate in my very hard tap water to CO2, which it then uses for photosynthesis. About half of aquatic plants have some ability to do this. This year I had a baby boom of mystery snails that have decided the Vallisneria is a snack, reducing its biomass. So this summer another plant, the dwarf aquarium lily Nymphaea stellata, has exploded. It can engage in a limited amount of bicarbonate use, but even more important are its floating leaves, which allow it to sidestep the aquatic carbon sources entirely and just use atmospheric CO2! I am considering setting up a CO2 bubbler system as I have in the past to give some of the other aquatic plants a leg up. I had taken it down when the snails were babies to help keep pH high to help their tiny shells grow.
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2026-05-25 01:01:39 GMT

Larval oysters have an eye which can detect wavelength and intensity of light. They use the ratio of red and blue light to determine the correct depth at which to settle and attach to the bottom, working from the principle that red light doesn't penetrate as far into the water as blue light! They are phototaxic, attracted to depths where red light is present, and swim up and away from places where only blue light is present #clamFacts
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2026-05-23 22:09:59 GMT

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@nprofile…nekg wow, she actually digs it up to bring back in?

2026-05-23 22:06:53 GMT

What are some houseplants you struggle with? I keep probably 120 species, but I continue to have issues with:
- Poinsettia. I have tried keeping them outside and inside, at different light levels. I find inevitably they drop tons of leaves or get a pest (recently Lewis mites), and I then go through a cycle of nursing them to health until the next crisis. I actually think they're really cool plants, just haven't been able to keep one more than 2 years after being given one.
- Polka dot plants. I have grown these in everything from terrariums to outdoors, with distilled water, from seed and as cuttings, and I just find they inevitably start to look sickly and sad. They look great and then suddenly either etiolate or crinkle up. Or they go to seed. I think their light requirements are extremely specific and I find it hard to get right.
- Dieffenbachia (as I call them, griefenbachia). I have the most success with these in leca balls. They are also hard to keep happy; I think their soil moisture needs are hard to satisfy without root rot. I've had one for ten years and have had to resurrect it as cuttings a few times over.

2026-05-20 15:26:04 GMT

In the Philippines, shipworms (bivalves that eat wood) are called tamilok and are often eaten raw, marinated in citrus in a ceviche-like dish called kinilaw. They also can be deep fried. The taste has been compared to oysters! Since they can be grown with such limited resources, basically just requiring wood, researchers are trying to develop it as a sustainable seafood! I would consider trying it fried but I think I'll leave kinilaw for the more developed palates 😅 #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/607/591/447/115/495/original/75ed999596ebe97b.webp
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2026-05-19 20:51:54 GMT

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Image sources: https://www.marinespecies.org/photogallery.php?album=700&pic=160278
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00364827.1974.10411261

2026-05-19 20:50:11 GMT

If a bivalve shell has a big honkin snoot off to one side, it is called 'rostrate'. Such structures are often a sign of a big siphon. In the most extreme cases, such as for Cuspidaria, it can a sign of carnivory, with them using a long vacuum hose-like siphon to suck up prey! All the better to eat copepods with! #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/603/205/454/833/060/original/3ebdd437f8de5915.jpg
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2026-05-16 02:08:11 GMT

Darwin was interested in pretty much everything, so of course he wrote about bivalves, such as in 1882 about a freshwater mussel which a colleague had observed stuck on the toe of a duck. He also wrote about a pea clam clamped on the leg of a diving beetle, and other bivalves stuck on frogs or newts. He then expanded to discuss all the ways freshwater bivalves might hitch rides to colonize new places and its evolutionary significance. #clamFacts
https://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1802&pageseq=1

2026-05-15 20:58:28 GMT

It is pretty hard to get funding to study clams.
But like a clam, I am resilient. I am ready and waiting for the right opportunity to float by.

2026-05-08 01:58:17 GMT

not enough people are asking, what is the water-speed velocity of an unladen scallop?

2026-05-07 23:33:49 GMT

‪It is surprisingly common to find whole clam shells in everyday neighborhood concrete, since they often use sand or gravel mined from shallow aquatic environments to make the concrete. The legendary malacologist Tim Pearce from Carnegie Museum wrote about finding invasive Corbicula clams in a sidewalk! #clamFacts https://carnegiemnh.org/clams-in-the-concrete-how-old-is-this-sidewalk/
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/535/901/026/416/142/original/5b10d9a8a882f7a7.png

2026-05-06 18:42:59 GMT

I am a very specific kind of reply guy. If someone jokes about the appearance of geoducks (Panopea), I must appear and remind them THEY👏LOOKED👏LIKE👏THAT👏FIRST
since the Jurassic!! #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/529/099/674/842/156/original/0ffebf85ec7e0d7c.jpg

2026-05-06 03:50:26 GMT

We need a Ghostbusters rewrite where one stubborn EPA regulator is all that stands in the way of Big Tech-funded ghost resurrection technology destroying the world

2026-05-05 20:39:03 GMT

Giant clams can survive for hours out of water. They actually produce enough oxygen through the action of their photosynthetic algal symbionts to power their respiration for short periods, even with no water to breathe from. But even they have limits, and last year the famous clam garden of Orpheus Island, where 100s of 40-year old specimens were thriving, was wiped out by weeks of low salinity after a storm event. These 4 ft long clams were the legacy of an aquaculture research program from the 80s. Even after the Orpheus Island center was defunded, the clams remained. Hopefully further research can determine whether their loss was simply a result of poor placement (there are mentions of occasional low salinity events in the past), or whether they would have survived if not for increasingly volatile and heavy storms caused by climate change. While the loss of the clam garden was devastating, their presence and spawning helped support several generations of new recruits in the surrounding area! #clamFacts https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2025/march/giant-clam-garden-a-victim-of-severe-weather

2026-05-04 17:25:41 GMT

Lasaea rubra are fun intertidal clams. Like some other members of Galeommatoidea, they are very mobile, using a snail-like foot to crawl around. They brood their young in their shell, an adaptation more commonly found in bivalves in extreme environments. They can reproduce with parthenogensis, so if you find a clump of neighbors, it is likely a mother and her lil clones living alongside her #clamFacts https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/348461217

2026-05-03 17:34:23 GMT

Parthenogensis (clonal reproduction of females) is pretty unusual. Corbicula fluminea is in an even smaller club: it is one of only a few species across the entire tree of life known to use androgenesis! They're hermaphrodite and reproduce asexually, but only the paternal genome is passed on, while the maternal genome is literally discarded out of the cell nucleus! This clonal reproduction has enabled it to become a notorious invasive species: where one hitches a ride, there can quickly be a LOT more in only a couple years! #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/511/838/247/504/467/original/f8b75465a78d205d.jpg

2026-05-02 22:50:19 GMT

Unionid mussels live in freshwater, so they need to attach their larvae to fish to get them upstream. They have many strategies to lure fish in and trick them to take a bite, but Hamiota perovalis, the orangenacre mucket, literally puts out a fishing line by attaching its larvae to a long mucus thread and wiggling it around! 🎣 #clamFacts
https://youtu.be/-8cCN3WV_qg?si=eX1-dEn1uRvPYr8F

2026-05-02 15:12:44 GMT

The rare kind of election where every choice was a good one. I for one welcome our vampire snail overlords (but don't blame me, I voted for horse conch)
#nevent1q…juwy

2026-04-28 22:35:43 GMT

Idea: clamocracy

2026-04-28 22:20:29 GMT

Anyone got a high res version? This is Exhibit 1 from the Comey indictment. If the pic is from North Carolina coast, the 8 looks like mostly Dinocardium robusta, the giant Atlantic cockle. The 6 probably the same but stained by anoxic sediment. The 4+7 look like a mix of Crassostrea virginica (Eastern oyster) and Geukensia demissa (Eastern ribbed mussel). Maybe also some ponderous ark, Noetia ponderosa and maybe also a Glycymeris (bittersweet clam) in the 8 #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/484/649/319/593/942/original/a9361a3f9dab9b68.jpeg

2026-04-26 15:04:44 GMT

Moon clams are really, really weird. They live with their shell permanently open on their back like a snail, and move around on their foot. Their soft mantle extends over their shell, so they end up looking a lot like cowry snails. They are found in Western Australia, where they live symbiotically in the burrows built by shrimp. Many members of their superfamily, Galeommatoidea, are symbiotic with other creatures. Some others in the family can also use their foot for snail-like locomotion, but moon clams are unique in how much they're committed to the "nothing to see here, I'm a snail" bit. Just weird little guys! #clamFacts
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/04/10/moon-clam-vies-mollusk-year-thanks-cu-researcher

2026-04-15 20:57:08 GMT

I don't care about my citation number (which is good, because it's small haha), but I can't deny it's satisfying when someone I've never met before cites me, clearly understood my work, ran with a concept from the paper and discovered something new themselves. Just like I did with studies I cited! Sometimes science works!

2026-04-14 18:31:12 GMT

Throughout my limited time in science, I've gotten a lot of no's. I used to ask for the notes and rationales when I didn't get a grant, but over time, I realized like their reasons are usually made up to back-rationalize what is actually a gut decision by each member of the evaluation group. I was told as a grad student to re-apply for some funding when I had some more publications, but then someone else with no publication record got the award. I was told my postdoc project idea wouldn't work but then someone else was funded for a postdoc doing a very similar study design. I agonized over my CV formatting and letters when I applied for TT jobs, thinking I was missing something, but then I saw some other people's materials and realized my stuff was better. So basically I've stopped caring what they think, and they can take it or leave it lol. I no longer ask for their notes and if they provide them, I take everything with a huge handful of salt. There are a couple exceptions to this rule. For example, I thought the selection process for the Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship (which I didn't get) was quite transparent, quantitative and rational. But usually I think the funders are actually making their decision based on vibes, and all the stuff on top is window dressing.

2026-04-14 03:04:45 GMT

Folks, Unitas Malacologica is running their 'mollusk of the year' contest and they've got some real bangers in there, check it out and vote! https://www.unitasmalacologica.org/mollusc-of-the-year-2026.html

2026-04-07 00:48:31 GMT

I love all bivalves. But I have to admit that zebra and quagga mussels are pretty sinister. They are in the same genus, native to the Caspian Sea, and have completely re-engineered the Great Lakes since they invaded in the 80s via ship ballast water. They eat all the good plankton (encouraging harmful cyanobacterial blooms), block the sediment and even smother native bivalves! Our introduction of them is thought to be responsible for the decline of several fish and other animals over the last several decades #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/360/667/271/616/392/original/55eebfa528c0565c.jpg

2026-04-06 17:05:43 GMT

Bivalves are often thought of as herbivores, but this is a misconception, as most species eat a fair number of tiny animals called zooplankton, including in some cases the larvae of other bivalves! Some carnivorous bivalves have even evolved to vacuum up larger prey like copepods! #clamFacts

2026-04-03 16:03:21 GMT

Science really could not be designed better as an impostor syndrome generation machine, even if they started from scratch setting up the system for that purpose. It's wild how every step seems designed to make talented people feel like they suck and pushing them to give up on research.

2026-04-01 19:46:14 GMT

A colleague keeps changing column names of shared datasets in seemingly random fashion
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/331/167/478/060/000/original/11815c9d1cf51f49.mp4

2026-03-31 17:04:46 GMT

Polynesian cultures have used giant clams for food and shell-based crafts for thousands of years. The clams, which take years to reach maturity, can quickly be fished out if they aren't responsibly managed. A new study found that traditional management approaches in American Samoa, which include village elders coming to consensus on seasonal and size-based harvest restrictions, are highly effective at maintaining their populations, sometimes more than federally managed Marine Protected Areas! #clamFacts
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/traditional-protection-proves-more-successful-for-clams-in-american-samoa/

2026-03-09 01:49:46 GMT

While oysters lack ears, they still can hear, using statocysts, their balance organ. Researchers have found playing the soundscape from a healthy oyster reef attracts larvae to settle! They have evolved to settle on their ancestors to build reefs, and sound is a useful cue of a good spot! https://phys.org/news/2022-10-sea-soundscapes-summon-thousands-baby.html #clamFacts

2026-02-27 19:30:04 GMT

It always gives me a chuckle when I get an ad asking if I want to go back to get another degree. They're marketing to a guy who went to school until I literally ran out of school to take! 27 years of training if you count the postdocs!
But low key maybe their algorithm is right. If I could, I'd go back and study carnivorous plants, podiatry, syrphid flies, or environmental law. Maybe all of the above and additional stuff depending on my mood.

2026-02-24 19:08:06 GMT

TIL of "snail fur," a hydroid adapted to live on snail shells occupied by hermit crabs. Life is just a turducken (hydrosnailcrab?) of symbiosis all the way down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydractinia_echinata

2026-02-21 16:37:14 GMT

New paper out! We used toxin measurements in mussels to identify a threshold of abundance for a harmful plankton, Alexandrium, associated with toxin rising above background levels. We then used that threshold to look at other harmful algae in SF Bay and what seasons they grow! We found a club of similar harmful algae that proliferate in the fall (August to October) when chlorophyll levels reach a certain threshold. These algae all have the ability to swim and are mixotrophic (use photosynthesis and eat bacteria/other algae), which may give them an advantage in that season. We are prioritizing those genera and this season in our future monitoring of harmful algal bloom events in SF Bay!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568988326000387?via%3Dihub=
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2026-02-16 19:03:46 GMT

Has anyone ever done an analysis of the true costs of Daylight Savings, in terms of scripts being wrong, the cost of checking errors originating from daylight savings, etc? I bet the ongoing costs are huge.

2026-02-16 03:38:27 GMT

I still learn new #clamFacts all the time. TIL of the rosy bitterling! Freshwater mussel larvae are famed for grabbing onto fish to ride upstream attaching to the gills or other surfaces and often stealing resources from the host fish. The rosy bitterling fish flips the script and lays its eggs in the gill cavity of mussels, with the male then adding insult to injury depositing sperm. The embryos live embedded in the gills, emerging as tiny fish!
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2026-02-03 14:42:28 GMT

Comparing historical hair samples from people from when they were babies to today, a new study finds a nearly 100-fold decrease in lead from samples after the EPA's crackdown on leaded gas. Regulation works and it saves lives!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/
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2026-01-21 20:28:22 GMT

People sometimes say science is hard because of the uncertainty, hypotheses usually being wrong, difficulty when there is no is no manual for what you're doing, etc, but I find that part exhilarating. For me, the hardest part of science is the complexity that human beings add to the process, lol. So I guess science isn't actually that uniquely hard, it's just like any other job?

2026-01-21 01:32:45 GMT

If a plant could feel exertion, I think a Philodendron putting out a new leaf would. Looks uncomfortable!
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/930/499/259/335/589/original/7b4b85eab892c4b5.jpg

2026-01-13 01:02:30 GMT

I wonder how many hours I've had to waste obtaining scientific articles rather than being able to just click directly to the pdf so I can do science. Having to do university SSO/vpn/fifteen clicks to the actual damn pdf. Or discovering we don't have it, writing to the author or a colleague to ask for a copy. I wonder how much researcher time has been wasted globally on this. I wonder how much research time sci-hub has saved, the economic value of that time. I bet it's A LOT.

2025-12-30 21:25:01 GMT

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@nprofile…6zuf I feel this when people make fun of RFK's voice. I want him in prison. I want him and his accomplices to suffer consequences for their crimes. Let's keep that separate from what by all accounts seems like a legitimate medical condition he has

2025-12-30 19:52:42 GMT

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Note: if you want to discover a new clam species, you will have to train to be a taxonomist first. Taxonomists are biology's Batmen. They spend much of their time in seclusion deep in the cave of the specimen stacks, trying to discern fungus gnats by their genitalia and writing long letters arguing about how that exciting new species from last year is actually old news from an 1878 expedition of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Occasionally they emerge to collect new stuff, which is quite exciting, since they increase our understanding of the size and intricacies of our tree of life through their work. I can't think of anything more profound. They are mysterious and their skills impossible to replicate. They are also chronically under-appreciated, underfunded and a dying breed, despite the fact that their work is absolutely crucial to understanding biodiversity and the threats our biosphere faces from human activity. Having biology without taxonomy is like trying to run a business without accountants. They are the heroes we need but don't deserve. I could never be a taxonomist because I will never be that competent lol

2025-12-30 00:18:21 GMT

YOUR CLAM YEAR IN REVIEW
- There are over ten thousand known species of bivalves and tens of thousands more undescribed. Please do your part and find a few species next year.
- Cultured bivalves alone help remove over 49,000 tons of nitrogen from our waterways every year, along with other pollutants (the contribution of wild bivalves is several times that). They charge us $0 for this service!
- We don't have data on how often you thanked clams, but it wouldn't hurt to do it more next year.

2025-12-18 20:33:57 GMT

Raising a Nepenthes pitcher plant, I've observed that the edges of its traps, the rest of the leaves and even its stems are often quite sticky from extrafloral nectar. Touching the plant often leaves a sticky residue on my hands, so I've taken to wearing gloves when handling it! A new study finds those nectars are laced with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which have neurotoxic effects! The plant is drugging its victims to make them more likely to fall in the trap! Combined with the plant producing CO2 in the traps to help attract bugs, and potential fluorescent cues, pitcher plants really are maniacal in their search for tasty bugs. No wonder Darwin was fascinated by them. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/plb.70033

2025-12-16 16:14:15 GMT

Bittersweet clams get their name from their taste, allegedly a bit sweet and nutty (no personal data to support this). The genus name, Glycymeris, means 'partly sweet'. In the Eastern Mediterranean, massive piles of the violet bittersweet (Glycymeris nummaria) are present, possibly deposited by ancient wave events! #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/730/124/715/065/510/original/f6f09fbab647b9d8.jpg

2025-11-27 23:15:46 GMT

The turkey wing ark clam is native to the Americas over a broad range from N. Carolina to Brazil, and has invaded the coasts of Europe! A very adaptable filter feeder, attaching itself to hard substrate with byssal threads. They sometimes hitchhike into aquaria on live rock this way! Apparently they have made it to Europe on floating debris #clamFacts
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2025-11-06 17:51:23 GMT

Psych, they're all real, lol. See a glossary here and impress your friends! https://conchsoc.org/aids_to_id/bivalve-parts.php

2025-11-05 23:30:33 GMT

New research finds that despite lacking a centralized brain, sea urchins show a surprising degree of nervous system organization, with a diversity of cell types, each with a different specialization, and a complex system of light-detecting cells as well. I often assert to people that as we've seen with cephalopods, jumping spiders and other surprisingly intelligent inverts, we should not under-estimate how sophisticated the nervous systems of inverts can be. The body can be a brain. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-body-brain-sea-urchins.html

2025-10-30 15:26:39 GMT

A reef is a sedimentary structure supported by the skeletons of living organisms. Corals are the most famous reef builders, but oysters build them too! Cretaceous rudists, Jurassic lithiotids and bivalves from other time intervals of the past actually rivaled corals globally in reef area and biomass! #clamFacts
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2025-10-28 01:49:05 GMT

Bivalve shells are often colored, either by optically active pigments in the crystal structure of the shell itself, or by the protein layer on top (periostracum) being colored. Yellow and brown are most common, with green and blue being most unusual. As with birds and insects, blue pigment is very difficult to achieve, so in bivalve shells is more often generated via structural coloration! #clamFacts
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2025-10-20 20:18:24 GMT

Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter accurately portays how much walruses love to eat bivalves. But walruses mostly hunt in deeper waters than where oysters live, pulling their tongue into their mouth like a piston to suck clams out of the shell. One study found >80% of their stomach contents were Mya truncata, the blunt gaper clam! #clamFacts
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2025-10-14 20:34:29 GMT

Unlike their gastropod and cephalopod relatives, there are no known pelagic bivalves that remain in the water column throughout their lives! Many bivalves start as planktonic when they are veligers (larvae), but they all eventually settle down. There are fossil species that have been suspected as pelagic based on being found in open-ocean deposits, but other explanations have been found for those. One modern genus, Planktomya, was thought to be planktonic based on a certain species, P. hensoni, being found in plankton net samples over a huge area from the Gulf of Mexico to Western Africa. But later they found adults in the Caribbean and realized they were just larvae that are particularly long-lived and prolific, getting carried far from home! #clamFacts
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2025-10-06 19:36:22 GMT

It is common for aquaculture to triploid oysters as their stock! They have three sets of chromosomes, rather than the usual two, rendering them sterile. This means their body growth is faster, because they don't put energy into reproduction! A triploid oyster is generated by mating a tetraploid (4 sets of chromosomes) oyster with a normal diploid one. Making a tetraploid oyster is an *extremely* technical process involving interrupting the normal processes of mitosis/meiosis in the oyster reproductive cells. #clamFacts https://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/nat/2024/01/05/a-brief-explanation-about-triploid-oysters/
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2025-10-04 20:43:01 GMT

In October 2024: golden mussels were first detected at the Port of Stockton. They likely came in the ballast water of a ship, coming from one of the places they've previously invaded. In the year since detection they have rode the CA aqueduct all the way down to San Bernadino. Right now, water managers are desperately trying to keep them from hitching a ride on a boat into a reservoir. They generally can't stop them from getting down the aqueduct, since millions rely on that water, but I don't think anyone expected them to spread this quickly! I made a gif of the map maintained by CDFW. https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Invasives/Species/Golden-Mussel #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/317/830/041/906/520/original/2e211a02201a6226.mp4

2025-08-26 15:27:58 GMT

Jingle shells are a family of very thin, flat bivalves that live attached to surfaces. The mangrove jingle shell lives attached to the lower leaves of mangroves! It is not actually air living, and still needs to be immersed by the tides occasionally to survive, though it can survive ten days out of water! I consider it a sign of hope that the clams are working on invading our lands and it is only a matter of time. Mangrove jingles have an evolutionary history stretching back >55 million years, but I still have faith our clam overlords are coming...eventually. #clamFacts
https://media.scicomm.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/095/764/792/798/505/original/6af655e9ab6c4ec5.jpg

2025-08-22 21:39:27 GMT

Bean clams are famous for jumping to "body surf" the waves to stay at the tide line on the beach! Researchers found they're sensitive to the sound frequency of waves breaking, and time their jumps to align with the loudest 20% of waves, to give them the gnarliest shred down the beach! #clamFacts

2025-08-19 19:06:11 GMT

The common piddock, Pholas dactylus, is one of the few known bioluminescent bivalves (though there are assuredly others that just haven't been described), producing flashes of light from a luminescent protein called pholasin when they're disturbed! Aristotle wrote about them, and Pliny noted "they shine in men's mouths as they be chewing on them"! I still have not been able to find a photo or video of the behavior— let me know if you know of one! #clamFacts

2025-08-11 06:00:42 GMT

Bivalve gills, also called ctenidia, are made of many fine filaments, which are covered by countless microscopic cilia. The cilia are triggered to beat when the bivalve smells something nice, causing water to flow past. The cilia stick to tasty particles and pass them down towards the mouth like an assembly line! #clamFacts
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