Pecten jacobaeus

The Mediterranean scallop (Pecten jacobaeus) is an edible bivalve fished in the Mediterranean and in the Channel living on the sandy bottoms at 25-200 m of depth. The valves, reaching 14 cm with 14-16 ribs, are not equal: the lowest, that on which the mollusk leans, is convex and clear, whilst the upper one, brown-reddish, looks flat. This mollusk lives filtering the organic material, alive or dead, in suspension and is able to swim quickly beating the valves. When resting on the bottom and these are half closed, we note several tentacles with sensory functions of the water characteristics and of the environment, spaced of about 60 small dark iridescent eyes © Giuseppe Mazza