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Scallop — printable fact sheet
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Animal Fact Sheet
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Scallop
Pecten maximus
Scallops are among the very few bivalves that swim, clapping their valves to jet water backwards out of the hinge corners and hopping erratically through the water column to escape sea stars. That escape burst is powered by a single oversized adductor muscle, and unlike most biv…
Did you know?
- Unlike most bivalves, scallops are active swimmers, not just sedentary dwellers.
- Scallop eyes have two retinas per eye, one apparently tuned to the periphery and one to the centre, an arrangement found nowhere else. The upper and lower valves of most scallops differ: one is flat and one is cupped, because the animal usually rests on one side. Scallops regularly regrow lost eyes. The stacked guanine crystals of the mirror are square, a shape that does not form naturally in guanine and that the animal must actively control during growth.
What I learned
Draw the scallop
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