''Pinctada'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of saltwater oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pteriidae. These

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

oysters have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl". Pearl oysters are not closely related to either the edible oysters of family Ostreidae or the freshwater pearl

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

s of the families

Unionidae The Unionidae are a Family (biology), family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids. The range of distribution for this family is world-wide. It is a ...

and Margaritiferidae. '' Pinctada margaritifera'' and '' P. maxima'' are used for culturing South Sea and Tahitian pearls. They are cultured widely primarily in the central and eastern

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

. A pearl oyster can be seen on the reverse side of the 1,000-peso note of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Species of commercial value

All species within the genus produce

s. Attempts have been made to harvest pearls commercially from many ''Pinctada''

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. However, the only species that are currently of significant commercial interest are: * Gulf pearl oyster, ''Pinctada radiata'';

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and throughout the

as far as

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. * Black-lip oyster, ''Pinctada margaritifera'';

and southwestern part of

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

;

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

;

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

;

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

;

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

;

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 ...

* Gold-lip oyster, ''Pinctada maxima''; Australia; Fiji; Tahiti; * White-lip oyster, ''Pinctada maxima''; Australia; Fiji; Tahiti; Myanmar; * '' Pinctada mazatlanica''; Mexico; Panama; * Akoya pearl oyster, '' Pinctada fucata'' (also called ''P. martensii''), Red Sea;

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

;

; Western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

; Australia;

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

;

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

; * Shark Bay pearl oyster '' Pinctada albina''; Australia The various species of ''Pinctada'' produce different maximum sizes and colors of pearls, depending on the size of the species and the natural color of the nacre inside the shell. Black South Sea pearls, or Tahitian pearls come from the black-lip oyster; gold and silver South Sea pearls from the gold-lip and silver-lip oysters; and Akoya cultured pearls from ''Pinctada fucata martensii'', the Akoya pearl oyster. Pearls are also obtained in commercial quantities from some species of the closely related winged oyster genus '' Pteria''. Pearls are also produced from freshwater

species unrelated to pearl oysters. These freshwater species include '' Hyriopsis cumingii'', '' Hyriopsis schlegelii'', and a hybrid of the two species. At danger from the large demand for pearls, the typical lifespan of a pearl oyster is usually around 3 years to 14 years. ''Pinctada maxima'' are seeded at about 2 years of age and take 2 years to fully develop a pearl. They can be reseeded up to 3 or 4 times. Akoya pearls are harvested after about 9 to 16 months. Research carried out by biologist Aldemaro Romero Jr. allowed him to discover that the first animal population depleted by Europeans in the American continent was a pearl oyster species (''Pinctada imbricata'') off the coast of Venezuela. He analyzed historical records and used information about the biology of these and other species to explain its rapid disappearance.

Species list

The

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

includes the following species in the genus: * '' Pinctada albina'' (Lamarck, 1819) – Shark Bay pearl oyster * '' Pinctada capensis'' (Sowerby III, 1890) * '' Pinctada chemnitzii'' (Philippi, 1849) * '' Pinctada cumingii'' (Reeve, 1857) * '' Pinctada fucata'' (Gould, 1850) – Akoya pearl oyster – now accepted as ''Pinctada fucata martensii '' * '' Pinctada galtsoffi'' Bartsch, 1931 * '' Pinctada imbricata'' Röding, 1798 – Gulf pearl oyster * '' Pinctada inflata'' (Schumacher, 1817) * '' Pinctada longisquamosa'' (Dunker, 1852) * '' Pinctada maculata'' (Gould, 1850) – pipi pearl oyster * '' Pinctada margaritifera'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – Black-lipped oyster * '' Pinctada maxima'' (Jameson, 1901) – gold-lipped oyster or silver-lipped oyster * '' Pinctada mazatlanica'' (Hanley, 1856) * '' Pinctada nigra'' (Gould, 1850) * '' Pinctada petersii'' (Dunker, 1852) * '' Pinctada radiata'' (Leach, 1814) – Atlantic pearl-oyster – now accepted as ''Pinctada radiata'' * '' Pinctada reeveana'' (Dunker, 1872) * '' Pinctada sugillata'' (Reeve, 1857) * '' Pinctada vidua'' (Gould, 1850)

References

External links

*
OBIS Indo-Pacific molluscan database entry for ''Pinctada''
{{Authority control Pteriidae Bivalve genera Commercial molluscs Taxa named by Peter Friedrich Röding