''Limecola balthica'', commonly called the Baltic macoma, Baltic clam or Baltic tellin,Sartori, André F. (2016)
''Limecola balthica'' (Linnaeus, 1758).
In: Sartori, André F. (2016). Limecola balthica (Linnaeus, 1758). In: MolluscaBase (2016). World Register of Marine Species (accessed 2016-07-08) is a small saltwater

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of marine and freshwater Mollusca, molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hing ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family Tellinidae (the macomas and tellins).

Appearance

The shells are smooth, relatively flat, oval or somewhat trigonal in shape, and less than 30 mm long.''Macoma balthica'' (Linnaeus, 1758)
Marine Bivalve Shells of the British Isles. National Museum Wales (2014) The shell color is polymorphic, varying between individuals and between localities. Often most specimens are white, sometimes most are pink, and also yellow and orange shells may occur. Color is best visible in worn-out dead shells and inside the shell. Concentric growth rings indicating the age of the specimen are often clearly visible.

Ecology and habitat

''Limecola balthica'' is an

infaunal Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zool ...

bivalve, living buried in the mud or

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

, and extending its two narrow

siphon A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...

s to the bottom surface. Through the siphons, it feeds on organic matter on the sediment surface or in the water. ''Limecola balthica'' is a

euryhaline Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the molly (''Poecilia sphenops'') which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water. The green crab ('' Carcinus maenas'') is an ...

species, capable of living in a wide range of water

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

, down to 3-4 permille, i.e. 10% of ocean salinity. It usually lives in the

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

or shallow subtidal, and is common in estuaries and bays. In the

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

it lives submerged down to water depths over 100m.

Distribution

''Limecola balthica'' lives in the northern parts of both the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and

Pacific ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

s, and also extends to the

Subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Genera ...

both in North America and in Europe. The European distribution ranges from southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

north to the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is s ...

and Pechora Sea, and also includes the inner brackish parts of the

.Strelkov, Petr; Nikula, Raisa; Vainola, Risto (2007) ''Macoma balthica'' in the White and Barents Seas: properties of a widespread marine hybrid swarm (Mollusca: Bivalvia). - Molecular Ecology, 16, 4110-4127, In eastern North America, ''L. balthica'' is distributed from the Gulf of St. Lawrence Bay north to

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

, in the Pacific from

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

to the

Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea (; french: Mer de Beaufort, Iñupiaq: ''Taġiuq'') is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, and west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after Sir ...

in Alaska, and also on the Russian coast. Along the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts (Oregon to south), ''M. balthica'' is replaced by a similar species '' Limecola petalum''.Baltic macoma

Alaska Department of Fish and Game The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is a department within the government of Alaska. ADF&G's mission is to protect, maintain, and improve the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources of the state, and manage their use and development in ...

, species fact sheet.

References

External links

''Macoma balthica'' (Linnaeus, 1758)
Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Image:Macoma balthica-Nl.jpg, Shell color polymorphism Image:Macoma baltica1pl.jpg, Inner and outer shell surface Image:Ecomare - nonnetje (pcd01082-nonnetje-sd).jpg {{Taxonbar, from=Q805778 Tellinidae Molluscs described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus