![]() ![]() ![]() They can sort through what they want to eat and spit out all the rest in a mucous-covered mess, and they do not even have hands! We generally have enough trouble sorting through socks on laundry day imagine if we had to do that blindfolded, with our mouths? That is one of the interesting things about zebra mussels. What they pick out, they digest as food, and spit out the rest - including cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). After zebra mussels filter out all the particles from the water, they pick out their favorite bits like fish feces, bits of decaying organic matter and microscopic organisms. For us, it would be like turning a piece of cake into crumbs and “breathing” them in instead of just taking a bite. They eat by sucking in water, filtering out all the particles, and spitting out what they do not want (along with the water). Just like many other bivalves, zebra mussels are filter feeders. Zebra mussels have a distinctly triangular shape instead of a rounded shape. “Cousins” is a stretch, because the main difference between clams and mussels are the shape of the shell in fact, based on genetics, zebra mussels (and quagga mussels, which are sibling species) are more closely related to several types of saltwater clams than they are any other mussel. They are native to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea in eastern Europe, and have two half-shells that they protect themselves with, just like their clam, oyster and scallop cousins. Zebra mussels, or more specifically Dreissena polymorpha, are a species of freshwater bivalve. But they, just like every other clade, kingdom or culture, are special in their own important ways. They are annoying, they are not pleasant to have around, and they do not look immediately interesting. That is one of a couple issues with the invasive zebra mussels. Sometimes, though, that interest is overshadowed by frustration at the species or creature. Be it the glass houses of the diatoms, the air-permeable skin of frogs, or the intense complexity of the human eye, every living thing has intrinsic interest and intrigue. Each organism has something that makes it unique. ![]() Every creature is fascinating in its own way, including zebra mussels. ![]()
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