As I read my assignment for my marine ecology class, a chapter on coral reefs, I start to picture the Great Barrier before me. I was upset when the textbook referred to members of Tridacna as "killer clams"...these things have honestly never aggresively killed anyone, they're not gonna jump up and attack you. Really. With the way science has progressed, I figure nothing of such absurdity would even be published in a textbook. Personally, I love the members of the genus Tridacna. They're gentle giants in my opinion, most unable to close their shell all the way. Their symbiosis with zooxanthellae produce some of the most gorgeous mantles I have ever seen. I love to stare at them for hours, mesmerized by their colors and patterns. Seeing my first blue lipped clam inspired me for life. Even though as a child I loved playing with garden snails (weird, I know), marine molluscs fascinate me on a whole other level. Their resilience, behavior, and diversity astound me. Most terrestrial mollusks are grazers. But with marine species, there's carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. From the sea star-eatting triton snail to the suspension feeding clam, the diversity is amazing. From swimming slugs to floating snails and giant clams over a meter in length settled on the floor, their behaviors and morphology are unlike any other phylum of marine invertebrate. (The only others that come close are maybe are arthropods.) These will truly be my favorite creature to study and photograph while on the GBR, except for maybe the corals and other cnidarians.
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