This unusual mollusk has two common names: geoduck and panopea.

Geoduck is the largest of all bivalve digging mollusks. They usually weight from 500 grams to 1 kg. There are individuals weighing up to 7 kg. The giant mollusk has a very unusual appearance.

The largest number of mollusks is caught off by fishmen the coast of Canada in the Gulf of Alaska, and they are used as food mainly in China and Japan. 

How does this unusual mollusk function?

The body of a geoduck is scientifically called a siphon. It is less than half protected by a bivalve shell.

The siphon resembles an elephant's trunk and serves the mollusk for all life-sustaining purposes. Through the opening siphon, water enters the body of the mollusk. Washes his gills, reaches the oral lobes. On the blades of the geoduck there are sensitive cells that allow edible particles to be recognized in the stream of water. The gills of the mollusk carry out not only gas exchange. They participate in the separation of edible and inedible.

Habitat

The geoduck mollusk is not picky about accommodations. The main conditions for it are warm water, shallow depth and a sandy bottom where it can burrow. Due to the fact that geoduck lives at shallow depths, it often becomes the prey of predators.

The mollusk weighs a lot and moves little, so because of it the geoduck is one of the centenarians of our planet. This invertebrate can live an average of 140 to 160 years. Scientists have found specimens that are more than 300 years old.