American Museum of Natural History

Dance your way into the weekend with the disco clam (Ctenoides ales)! This critter gets its name from its flashy light displays. Here’s how this species is stayin’ alive: its lips contain tiny balls of silica that catch and scatter light.🕺🪩👄✨ Scientists think that this clam’s light show, in coordination with the vivid coloring of its lips, might help to ward off foes like the peacock mantis shrimp. The disco clam inhabits tropical waters in the Indo-Pacific, where it pops up in crevices along coral reefs. Photo: Jacob Mojiwat, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, flickr #AnimalFacts #DiscoClam #clams #nature #CoolAnimals #dyk #mollusks #OceanLife #MarineLife #AnimalKingdom #WeirdAnimals https://www.instagram.com/p/ChM8hHPLm9r/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

A new marine research laboratory on Monterey Bay in California gave Frank Mace MacFarland the ideal setting to begin, in 1892, his lifelong study of sea slugs (nudibranchs). MacFarland became a world expert on nudibranchs—colorful mollusks that have no protective outer shell, and include some 3,000 species. MacFarland’s wife, Olive Hornbrook MacFarland, worked alongside him and painted the watercolors that illustrate his publications. Many sea slugs warn away predators with striking patterns and colors that advertise their powerful chemical defenses. Some species produce their own toxins, including sulphuric acid. Others store poisons taken from prey such as toxic algae. 

See more archival images. 

A colorful view of the Mollusks of New York State hallway. 

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