Mercenaria mercenaria

The hard clam, also known as the round clam, hard-shell clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams. Older literature sources may use the systematic name Venus mercenaria; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams.

Mercenaria mercenaria

Ken Hammond · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
quahogPBDB
Sits inside
MercenariaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Mercenaria
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Mercenaria
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Mercenaria
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 75 occurrencesMiocene — about 16 of 75 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 75 occurrencesPleistocene — about 56 of 75 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 39 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

75 occurrences of Mercenaria mercenaria on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

75 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

12 formations

Pamlico — 38.69°N, 75.77°WPamlico — 38.55°N, 75.08°WPamlico — 32.08°N, 81.10°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WPamlico — 32.78°N, 79.93°WPamlico — 34.04°N, 77.89°WPamlico — 34.78°N, 76.69°WPamlico — 35.00°N, 76.79°WPamlico — 35.25°N, 76.57°WPamlico — 35.64°N, 76.19°WPamlico — 35.70°N, 75.74°WPamlico — 35.50°N, 76.27°WPamlico — 36.33°N, 76.17°WPamlico — 32.87°N, 79.65°WKirkwood — 38.94°N, 74.91°WKirkwood — 38.99°N, 74.82°WKirkwood — 39.08°N, 74.82°WKirkwood — 39.40°N, 75.04°WKirkwood — 39.46°N, 75.30°WKirkwood — 39.00°N, 75.12°WCaloosahatchee — 27.77°N, 82.68°WCaloosahatchee — 26.76°N, 81.46°WCaloosahatchee — 26.92°N, 81.99°WCaloosahatchee — 26.96°N, 81.99°WAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WAcredale — 36.73°N, 76.34°WNorfolk — 36.92°N, 76.49°WNorfolk — 36.79°N, 76.41°WTalbot — 38.15°N, 76.43°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.55°N, 76.52°WJacobs Sand — 40.97°N, 72.46°WHorry Clay — 34.97°N, 76.97°WChoptank — 38.53°N, 76.52°WAnastasia — 26.98°N, 80.08°WGardiners Clay — 40.98°N, 72.32°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mercenaria mercenaria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mercenaria mercenaria and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mercenaria mercenaria and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

684 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Mercenaria mercenaria, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

15 references

Each of the 75 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 3 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Mercenaria mercenaria

Credit
Ken Hammond
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMercenaria through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)