Mollusks: Related Content

  • Sanibel Island Shells: One Species at a Time

    Ari Daniel Shapiro is joined for this episode of One Species at a Time by serious beachcombers along the high-tide line of Sanibel Island, Florida. These “shellers” come in search of beautiful sea shells, sometimes no bigger than a grain of rice, that are the remains of marine snails, bivalves, and other mollusks.

  • A photo of baby sea turtles on a beach in Jalisco, Mexico.

    Baby Sea Turtles in Jalisco, Mexico

    These baby olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea) will eventually provide a home to crustaceans, mollusks, and other epibionts. That's according to a survey of epibionts living on mature, nesting olive ridleys and green sea turtles in Jalisco, Mexico. The related study was published in the October 2011 issue of the Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Read about the study on our blog. 

  • <p>Amanda Feuerstein with a nesting olive ridley (<em><strong><a href="http://eol.org/pages/1056177/overview">Lepidochelys olivacea</a></strong></em>). Feuerstein is a co-author of a study that surveyed algae, crustaceans, mollusks, and other epibionts that live on the turtles in the Pacific Ocean.</p>

    Searching for Life -- Epibionts -- On Sea Turtles

    Amanda Feuerstein with a nesting olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea). Feuerstein is a co-author of a study that surveyed algae, crustaceans, mollusks, and other epibionts that live on olive ridley and green sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean. You can read about the study on the Ocean Portal blog.

  • Surveying Life On Sea Turtles

    “It is strange to think of a sea turtle as an ecosystem,” says Amanda Feuerstein, program coordinator and research assistant at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, “but they are…they have all of these other animals living on their skin and shells.”

  • Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

    In the spring of 2011, a research crew from Oceana spent two months in the brackish Baltic Sea. The Baltic faces challenges from pollution, algae blooms, over fishing, and invasive species. Oceana researchers gathered data, samples, photographs, and videos with the goal of proposing an expanded set of marine protected areas.

  • A photo of zebra mussels clinging together, the mollusks have successfully invaded brackish and freshwater areas across North America.

    Zebra Mussels (Dreissena polymorpha)

    This bivalve mollusk is native to the Caspian Sea, lagoons of the Black Sea, and their inflowing rivers. It lives in fresh and brackish water and cannot tolerate full seawater. In the 18th and 19th centuries, zebra mussels spread through European canals, reaching the Baltic Sea and many European river estuaries.

  • 5 Invasive Species You Should Know

    Regardless of what continent you live on, the waters that surround it are home to marine invaders. The ocean is teeming with plants and animals willing and able to move beyond their native habitats. Often all they need is a ride. Enter: humans. Some invaders hitchhike on ship hulls or inside ballast tanks, others are introduced through the aquarium trade.

  • A photo of an oyster cage, out of the water, covered in sea squirts.

    Sea Squirts Fouling an Oyster Cage

    Invasive species can have a range of environmental and economic impacts. In this photo sea squirts foul an oyster cage. Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Marine Invasions Lab study the movement and effects of non-native species around the globe. One region they've been examining closely is Alaska, where the cold coastal waters have been relatively free of invasive species.

  • A photo of nine ocean animals - echinoderms and gastropods - resting on two human fingers reveals the ocean's rich biodiversity.

    A Handful of Biodiversity

    Fitting nine of anything on two fingers is impressive. These gastropods and echinoderms are a teeny-tiny sample of the ocean's biodiversity. The Census of Marine Life estimates that there are at least one million species of plants and animals in the sea. Most of have not been described.

  • Image of a rapa whelk, a large marine snail retreated into its shell

    Rapa Whelk

    Rapa whelks, native to Asia, have invaded the Chesapeake Bay and are raising concerns about economic and ecological impacts to the Bay region due to their shellfish diet. Scientists believe that this non-native species reached the Chesapeake by hitching a ride across the Atlantic, probably as larvae in a ship's ballast water.

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