Adipicola pelagica
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| Adipicola pelagica | |
|---|---|
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| Illustration from S.P. Woodward's book | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Mytilida |
| Family: | Mytilidae |
| Genus: | Adipicola |
| Species: | A. pelagica |
| Binomial name | |
| Adipicola pelagica | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Adipicola pelagica is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the mussels. It is a deepwater species and is found attached to the bones and tissues of whales that have died and sunk to the seabed, and sometimes to fragments of decomposing carcases which have sloughed off and floated to the surface.
In 1854, a small bivalve mollusc was found attached to some whale blubber found floating off the coast of South Africa.[2] The mollusc was passed to the British malacologist Samuel Pickworth Woodward, who determined that the mollusc was new to science, and formally described it, naming the new species Adipicola pelagica. In 1927, the mollusc was seen again, this time attached to some floating whale debris in the northern Atlantic Ocean, and in 1964, a number of individuals were dredged up in the South Atlantic attached to a whale skull from a depth of 439 m (1,440 ft).[2]