Halloween is only around the corner and the Dracula is one of the most popular guises at this time of the year. However, researchers at Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales and the University of Copenhagen have recently discovered their own kind of dracula….a clam which has life sucking qualities and lives some 1000m deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
Named the Draculamya porobranchiata by its founders Dr Graham Oliver of Amgueddfa Cymru and Prof Jorgen Lutzen of the University of Copenhagen, this ‘Dracula clam’ is like no other clam in such that it has a spike in its foot that punctuates the skin of its prey to release body fluid, which it then sucks.
The vast majority of marine bivalve molluscs (we know them as scallops, clams, cockles, mussels, oysters) are filter feeders, pumping large quantities of water across their gills; this makes them good bioindicators to monitor the health of the surrounding environment. They have large gills, made up of long filaments, which trap and sort food particles suspended in the water or from the sediment. Gathered food is then sent to the mouth via an organ called the ‘palps’.
However, the gills of the Dracula clam, are reduced to a series of pores and there are no palps so it is impossible for the clam to filter feed. Following this discovery, researchers decided to take a closer look at this specific clam with thin-section microscopy and discovered it had pumping muscles behind the mouth, a cavernous stomach and, most surprising of all, a spike in the foot.
The specimens’ studies were collected by the National Oceanographic Institute, Southampton aboard the research ship RRS Discovery. They come from a region known as The Porcupine Sea Bight, South West Ireland but have been found in France and Norway always from around 900m-1500m deep.
Graham Oliver, Head of Biodiversity and Systematic Biology at Amgueddfa Cymru, said, “We are very excited to have discovered this life sucking clam. This combination of structures can only be explained by a fluid feeding habit. Unfortunately we are unable to identify the host or prey. The Dracula clam lives at around 1000m deep where it is impossible to observe them alive. They are nearly always found in association with glass sponges; however we cannot prove that this is what they feed on.
“Evolution continues to serve up amazing adaptations. Just why the Dracula Clam is unique among the 50,000 bivalve species already known, remains a puzzle!”
