Cerastoderma glaucum

Cerastoderma glaucum, the lagoon cockle, is a <a href="/facts/Species/oDg6b96r">species</a> of saltwater <a href="/facts/Clam/5BB6vVl7">clam</a>, a <a href="/facts/Marine_(ocean)/8W8lYgjD">marine</a> <a href="/facts/Bivalve/IQDxHVc8">bivalve</a> <a href="/facts/Mollusc/1elgknsQ">mollusc</a> in the family <a href="/facts/Cardiidae/3kWG7Que">Cardiidae</a>, the cockles.
This species is found along the coasts of Europe and North Africa, including the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean_Sea/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean</a> and <a href="/facts/Black_Sea/M0rLKvge">Black Seas</a> and the <a href="/facts/Caspian_Sea/Ymc08gkR">Caspian Sea</a>, and the low-salinity <a href="/facts/Baltic_Sea/jbQJGLQX">Baltic Sea</a>. It is a <a href="/facts/Euryhaline/V39UNHdL">euryhaline</a> species living in salinities 4-100 <a href="/facts/Permille/3xNDvE9l">‰</a>. In north-west Europe (including the <a href="/facts/British_Isles/4fBquvMU">British Isles</a>), it typically does not live on open shores but rather in shallow <a href="/facts/Burrow/vgY0GpEH">burrows</a> in saline <a href="/facts/Lagoon/IBp4ez2D">lagoons</a>, or sometimes on lower shores in <a href="/facts/Estuaries/WmkSInmK">estuaries</a>. It cannot tolerate significant exposure to the air. The form found in lagoons is thinner-shelled than the estuarine populations.
The lagoon cockle can grow to the length of 50 mm. In north-west Europe, it spawns in May–July, and the <a href="/facts/Plankton/WGo3LU9T">planktonic</a> larval phase takes 11–30 days. The life span of the settled cockle is typically 2–5 years.
The species was described as Cardium glaucum in 1789 almost simultaneously both by <a href="/facts/Jean_Guillaume_Brugui%25C3%25A8re/01UhumIa">Bruguière</a> and by <a href="/facts/Jean_Louis_Marie_Poiret/75kWdygD">Poiret</a>.

Cerastoderma glaucum
Right and left valve of the same specimen:

Cerastoderma glaucum lamarcki
Right and left valve of the same specimen:

Cerastoderma glaucum open-in-new

Cerastoderma glaucum