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Free swimming larvae
The Razor clam has so called external
fertilization. This means that both sexes release their eggs and sperms
into the water. The fertilized eggs hatch to larvae,
that swim freely in the water. After a few weeks the larvae transform,
became heavier and start a bottom living existence dug down into the substrate.
Immigrant
The Razor clam was at one time only found
long the North American coast from Labrador to Florida. In 1979 the first
examples, both living and empty shells, were found on the German North
Sea coast by the Elbe estuary. It is thought that a few free swimming
larvae had found their way to Europe in the ballast tank of a ship, which
had emptied its tanks outside Hamburg. The species has since then spread,
and was found in Denmark 1981, and in Holland and Sweden, 1982. Now they
are quite common along the beaches of the North Sea, Kattegatt and the
Skagerrak. In Sweden, they are found in Bohuslän and presumably in
Halland.
Hind
The clams ligament, that functions as
a hinge, is on the Razor clam placed on the shells front end. Nearly the
whole length of the long shell represents what would be the hind part
of the shell of a normally built clam.
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