Teredo (bivalve)
| Teredo | |
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| This dried specimen of Teredo navalis was extracted from the wood and the calcareous tunnel that originally surrounded it and curled into a circle artificially. The two valves of the shell are the white structures at the anterior end; they are used to dig the tunnel in the wood. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Myoida |
| Family: | Teredinidae |
| Genus: |
Teredo Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
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Teredo navalis Linnaeus, 1758 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Teredo is a genus of highly modified saltwater clams which bore in wood and live within the tunnels they create. They are commonly known as "shipworms," and are marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Teredinidae. The type species is Teredo navalis.
Because it is a tunneling genus, Teredo was chosen as the namesake of the Teredo network tunneling protocol. HMS Teredo, a submarine, may also have been named after this genus, which works invisibly, below the surface, and can be very damaging to marine installations made of wood.
Species within the genus Teredo include:
Teredo or Turu extracted from mangrove wood near Joanes, Marajó island, Brazil. This Turu is 1.5 cm in diameter and on the pic approximately 50 cm long (note that the tail is broken off).
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Wikipedia