Charismatic Shell

This charismatic shell once housed a small bivalve in the genus Chione. Collected and preserved from the Indian River Lagoon in 2015, this 8mm individual now resides in the archives of the Smithsonian Marine Station. Captured using a Jenoptik Gryphax Prokyon microscope camera, the image contributes to ongoing research examining how bivalve morphology has changed since 2005. As important bioindicators of environmental conditions, bivalve populations in the Indian River Lagoon have been monitored by the Smithsonian Marine Station for two decades. Today, revisiting these archived specimens allows us to look back in time, revealing how shifts in abundance may be mirrored by changes in size.