Sydney Cockle
Ark Cockle
Click to enlarge image
© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Anadara
- Species
- trapezia
- Family
- Arcidae
- Super Family
- Arcoidea
- Order
- Arcida
- Infraclass
- Pteriomorphia
- Subclass
- Autobranchia
- Class
- Bivalvia
- Phylum
- Mollusca
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Size Range
- 7 cm
The Sydney Cockle is a large cockle (about 7 cm) and quite conspicuous around Sydney's beaches and estuaries.
Identification
The Sydney Cockle shell is creamy white with about 28 deep, predominant ridges along the surface. This cockle is popularly harvested for food in estuarine tidal flats and seagrass beds.
Habitat
Sydney Cockle lives in intertidal mangroves and seagrass.
Distribution
The Sydney Cockle is found in Southern Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Feeding and diet
Like all bivalves, the Sydney Cockle is a filter feeder, taking in the surrounding water and extracting small particles of food. It is very efficient at this and can filter 1.5 litres of water in an hour. In polluted waters, it will also extract metals such as copper and cadmium and retain these in its flesh. Because of this, the species is sometimes used as a bioindicator to determine water pollution levels.
Other behaviours and adaptations
The Sydney Cockle is one of the few molluscs with red blood like us. Most molluscs species have colourless or blue blood.
