Giant honeycomb oyster

The giant honeycomb oyster (Hyotissa hyotis) is a very large saltwater oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk.

Giant honeycomb oyster
Hyotissa hyotis in Maldives
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreida
Family: Gryphaeidae
Genus: Hyotissa
Species:
H. hyotis
Binomial name
Hyotissa hyotis

Species in this family are known as honeycomb oysters or "foam oysters" because under magnification, their shell structure is foam-like.

Like most bivalves, the giant honeycomb oyster is a filter feeder.

  • shallow in Mayotte
  • Deeper
  • Recently dead specimen

Habitat and range

Its native range is in deeper water in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. It has however also been found recently as an accidentally introduced species in the Florida Keys.[1]

Bibliography
  • Paula M. Mikkelsen and Rudiger Bieler, 2008, Seashells of Southern Florida: Living Marine mollusks of the Florida Keys and adjacent regions, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, ISBN 0-691-11606-7

References
  1. Rüdiger Bieler, Paula M. Mikkelsen, Taehwan Lee & Diarmaid Ó Foighil, « Discovery of the Indo-Pacific oyster Hyotissa hyotis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Florida Keys (Bivalvia : Gryphaeidae) », Molluscan Research, vol. 24, 2004, p. 149–159
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