The shells of most of these animals are T-shaped, with the hinge along the top of the T, and with the byssus emerging from the hinge.
32.
Many species of mussels secrete byssus threads to anchor themselves to surfaces, with Families including the Arcidae, Mytilidae, Anomiidae, Pinnidae, Pectinidae, Dreissenidae, and Unionidae.
33.
These byssus or filaments ( which can be up to 6 cm long ) are spun and, when treated with lemon juice, turn a golden colour, which never fades.
34.
It lives on hard substrates, often attached with byssus, for instance in mussel beds or nestling among kelp holdfasts, or hiding in rock crevices and also boring itself into soft rocks.
35.
These hairnets were frequently made of gold threads, sometimes of silk, or the Elean " byssus ", and probably of other materials, which are not mentioned by ancient writers.
36.
The byssus, which is made of keratin, quinone-tanned proteins ( polyphenolic proteins ), and other proteins, is spewed into this chamber in liquid form, and bubbles into a sticky foam.
37.
A rare luxury cloth with a beautiful golden sheen, known as sea silk, was made from the long silky filaments or byssus produced by " Pinna nobilis ", a large Mediterranean clam.
38.
As the larval stage of " Pecten maximus " is relatively long, up to a month, then the potential for dispersal is quite high, even smaller adults can use the byssus to drift too.
39.
Behaviorally, cockles live buried in sediment, whereas scallops are either free-living and will swim in the sea water to avoid a predator, or in some cases they live attached by a byssus to a substrate.
40.
I have a long-time Swiss friend who is probably the world's top expert on the very rare and beautiful fabric known in English as Sea silk made from the byssus or fibres produced by certain seashells.
