What is the difference between an oyster and a clam?

Question

What is the difference between an oyster and a clam?

Answer 1

the world can be your oyster, not your clam

Answer 2

clams taste better! with butter on them!

Answer 3

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water. The shell consists of two usually highly calcified valves which surround a soft body. Gills filter plankton from the water, and strong adductor muscles are used to hold the shell closed.

Some types of oysters are highly prized as food, both raw and cooked. Other types, such as pearl oysters, are not widely eaten.

True (edible) oysters are incapable of making gem-quality pearls, although the opposite idea is a commonly-encountered misapprehension, often seen in illustrations or photographs where an edible oyster shell is mistakenly paired with a gem-quality pearl.

The oyster is used as a metaphor in an idiomatic saying, "The world is your oyster", which means that the whole world is laid out before you like a wonderful living buffet.[1]

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A clam is a bivalve mollusk. The word "clam" has no real taxonomic significance in biology. However in the United States the word can sometimes be used to mean any bivalve mollusk. It more properly refers to a bivalve other than an oyster, mussel, or scallop, and that has a more-and-less oval shape, or a freshwater mussel.[1]

The word clam is also very often used to mean any one of many edible bivalve species which live buried in mud or sand and communicates to the water by means of a siphon, hence, "digging for clams" or clam digging. Not all edible clams are round or oval in shape: the razor clam has an elongated shell whose shape suggests a straight razor.

In October 2007 an Arctica islandica clam caught off the coast of Iceland was discovered to be at least 405 years old,and was declared the world's oldest living animal by researchers from Bangor University,

Examples of clams



Moche clam. 200 A.D. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru.Ark clams, family Arcidae

Nut clams or pointed nut clams, family Nuculidae

Duck clams or trough shells, family Mactridae

Marsh clams, family Corbiculidae

File clams, family Limidae

Hard clam or Northern Quahog: Mercenaria mercenaria

Soft clam: Mya arenaria

Surf clam: Spisula solidissima

Ocean quahog: Arctica islandica

c this 4 more--

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascie...

Answer 4

An Oyster is slimier, and has a fishy taste and if fresh can be eaten raw. A Clam is usually cooked before eating and has a grittier taste

Answer 5

oyster taste better than clam

Answer 6

One's an oyster, the other is a clam

Answer 7

two completely different species of bivalve (or shellfish)

Answer 8

Step1

Examine the shell. If the shell is smooth to the touch, most likely it is a clam. If you count the rings on the shell of a clam, you can estimate the age of the clam. Oysters have a rougher exterior and soft on the inside.

Step2

Study the methods in which clams and oysters eat. Both of them are filter feeders. This means they pump water through their bodies. The water passes over the gills, and then the gills filter the water. The mollusks eat microscopic organisms such as plankton. A clam, however, has a special "siphon" on its body that helps to take in and filter the water better. In addition to providing the clam with food, the siphon also helps to filter waste products from its body.

Step3

Observe a clam and an oyster in the water. If the mollusk is moving, it is an oyster. You may see oysters opening and closing their shells. Clams are generally immobile and anchor themselves on the bottom of a body of water using a gland or foot, which also helps them to burrow.

Step4

Take notice of the clam's or oyster's habitat. Oysters live in marine or brackish water. Clams live in either fresh water or marine environments.

Step5

Check to see if there is a pearl inside the mollusk. If there is, you have found an oyster. Interestingly enough, clams are also capable of producing the nacreous material that oysters use to make pearls, but one can only find true pearls inside oysters.

Step6

Research the mollusk's reproductive cycle. The first year of an oyster's life, it acts as a male and releases sperm into the water. The remaining years, it acts as a female and releases eggs. When egg meets sperm, larvae form and settle somewhere to grow to adulthood, such as on the shell of another oyster or an underwater tree root. Clams also undergo a similar male-to-female change, but their larvae swim toward the light and are dispersed by waves, the wind and moving currents. They eventually burrow in the mud for their primary habitats.

Answer 9

an oyster is an oyster and a clam is a clam

Answer 10

Oysters live in brackish (salty) water, and attach themselves to rocks, etc. They feed by filtering plankton from this water. They usually are found in shallow areas.

Clams bury themselves in sand or mud, and feed through a snorkle-like tube. They can be salt or fresh water, and can be found under the sand on beaches between the low and high tide levels. Mussels are like clams.