Giant honeycomb oyster

The giant honeycomb oyster (Hyotissa hyotis) is a very large saltwater oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk.

Giant honeycomb oyster
Hyotissa hyotis in Maldives
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreida
Family: Gryphaeidae
Genus: Hyotissa
Species:
H. hyotis
Binomial name
Hyotissa hyotis
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hyotissa hyotis.

Species in this family are known as honeycomb oysters or "foam oysters" because under magnification, their shell structure is foam-like.

Like most bivalves, the giant honeycomb oyster is a filter feeder.

  • shallow in Mayotte
    shallow in Mayotte
  • Deeper
    Deeper
  • Recently dead specimen
    Recently dead specimen

Habitat and range

Its native range is in deeper water in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. It has however also been found recently as an accidentally introduced species in the Florida Keys.[1]

Bibliography
  • Paula M. Mikkelsen and Rudiger Bieler, 2008, Seashells of Southern Florida: Living Marine mollusks of the Florida Keys and adjacent regions, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, ISBN 0-691-11606-7

References
  1. Rüdiger Bieler, Paula M. Mikkelsen, Taehwan Lee & Diarmaid Ó Foighil, « Discovery of the Indo-Pacific oyster Hyotissa hyotis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Florida Keys (Bivalvia : Gryphaeidae) », Molluscan Research, vol. 24, 2004, p. 149–159
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