- Description
Keen, 1958, describes the Pen Shells as being slender, fragile, and so brittle that for protection they lie buried in mud with the pointed end down. They are anchored there by a tuft of fine fibers (byssal threads) which are secreted by glands of the foot. Keen further recounts the following fascinating history:
“The fine golden-brown byssal fibers of the Mediterranean Pinna were used to weave the legendary Cloth-of-Gold, a fabric that must have rivalled our finest synthetics, for a woman’s scarf of this material was said to be so flexible it could be rolled into a ball the size of a walnut. So much work was involved to harvest enough of the Pinnas and to process the fiber for weaving, however, that the cloth could be afforded only by royalty.”
- Classification
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- Class: Bivalvia
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- Subclass: Pteriomorpha
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- Order: Mytiloida
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- Superfamily: Pinnacea
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- Family: Pinnidae
- Major Genera
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- Genus: Atrina
- Genus: Pinna
- Genus: Streptopinna
Atrina
chinensis fragilis hystrix inflata kinoshitai
lischkeana maura oldroydii pectinata recta
rigida serrata squamifera tasmanica teramachii
texta tuberculosa vexillum zelandica
Pinna
bicolor carnea cellophana comancheana seminuda
epica exquisita incurva linguafelis saccata
muricata nobilis robinaldina rudis rugosa