Lot 6 Teredo navalis Seashell Bivalve Naval Shipworm Turu Teredinidae

Only 6 Euros per Shell ! Lot 6 Teredo navalis cm 1.5-4 Seashell Bivalve Naval Shipworm Turu Teredinidae, colonial limestone tubes, unique piece, as in the photo.
Common name: Naval Shipworm or Turu.
Syn. Pholas teredo, Serpula teredo, Teredo austini, Teredo batavus, Teredo beachi, Teredo beaufortana, Teredo japonica, Teredo marina, Teredo morsei, Teredo novangliae, Teredo pocilliformis, Teredo sellii, Teredo sinensis, Teredo vulgaris.

The shipworm (Teredo navalis) belongs to the phylum Molluscs, to the class of Heterodont Bivalves and to the Teredinidae family. The shipworm is a worm-like organism that lives by drilling into the wood of wrecks but also floating wooden structures. It covers the perforations in which it lives with calcareous tubes and moves inside protected by a small shell that covers its head.
This species may have originated in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean, but has spread throughout the world. It digs tunnels in piers and stilt houses and is one of the main causes of damage and destruction to underwater wooden structures and the hulls of wooden boats. In the past, they constituted a significant danger to the functionality of the hulls because, being xylophagous animals, wood constitutes their main source of nourishment. This danger is now easily eliminated thanks to protective and repellent paints that, by protecting the hulls, prevent shipworms from drilling into submerged wooden structures.
The genus Teredo, like other species of this bivalve family, is called naval shipworm because, in general appearance, it resembles a worm.
Teredo navalis has an elongated, reddish body, completely enclosed in a gallery that it has dug in floating or submerged wood. At the anterior end of the animal are two triangular calcareous plates. They are up to 2 cm long and correspond to the valves of other bivalve molluscs. The mollusc uses them to grasp the wood and slowly enlarge the burrow in which it lives. It has retractable inhalatory and exhalatory siphons that protrude through a small hole in the horny septum that blocks the opening of the burrow. When the animal is threatened, the siphons can be pulled into the burrow and protected by a pair of calcareous paddles similar to oars. The burrow has a circular cross-section and is lined with calcareous material extruded by the mollusc. It can be up to 60 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. The species is edible.