''Cardites floridana'', or the Broad-ribbed Carditid, is a marine

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

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 ...

Carditidae Carditidae is a family of marine bivalve clams of the order Carditida, which was long included in the Venerida. They are the type taxon of the superfamily Carditoidea. Carditidae is a neglected and poorly classified family. It has six ...

. It can be found along the coasts of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

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South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

(

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

) and 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 ...

Description

The shell shape of ''C. floridana'' is elongated quadrangular. The color is whitish gray with small areas of brown arranged on the ribs, covered by gray

periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods an ...

. It has approximately 20 coarse, rounded, beaded radial ribs. The interior is white with small light brown patches above muscle scars. It grows to be around 18–38 mm long. It typically inhabits sea-grass at a depth no more than 35 m (100 ft).

''Cardites floridanus'', grey form
Right and left valve of the same specimen: Carditamera floridana 05.jpg, Right valve Carditamera floridana 06.jpg, Left valve

''Cardites floridanus'' var. ''albus''
Right and left valve of the same specimen: Carditamera floridana 01.jpg, Right valve Carditamera floridana 02.jpg, Left valve

References

Carditidae {{bivalve-stub