''Dinocardium'' is a genus of large saltwater clams or cockles, marine

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Cardiidae A cockle is an edible marine bivalve mollusc. Although many small edible bivalves are loosely called cockles, true cockles are species in the family Cardiidae.>MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Cardiidae Lamarck, 1809. Accessed through: W ...

, the cockles. There is only one species in the genus, ''Dinocardium robustum'', or the Atlantic giant cockle.

Description

''Dinocardium robustum'' has a shell that reaches a length of 100–125 mm. This large and sturdy shell is obliquely ovate, with crenulate margins and about 32–36 rounded radial ribs present on both the inside and the outside. The valves are symmetrical with one another (equivalve). The basic color of the surface usually is creamy white, mottled with reddish-brown markings, while the interior is pinkish. This cockle burrows into the substrate by means of its strong foot, and like most bivalves feeds by filtering the water for plankton.

File:Dinocardium robustum 01.jpg, ''Dinocardium robustum''
Right valve File:Dinocardium robustum 02.jpg, ''Dinocardium robustum''
Left valve

File:Dinocardium robustum 03.jpg, ''Dinocardium robustum vanhyningi''
Right valve File:Dinocardium robustum 04.jpg, ''Dinocardium robustum vanhyningi''
Left valve

Distribution

This species can be found along the western Atlantic coast of North America, in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

References

Biolib

WoRMS

External links

* Cardiidae Monotypic bivalve genera {{Cardiidae-stub