Familia Myidae

Lamarck, 1809

The shells are gaping, inequivalve and possess a projecting chondrophore in the left valve. The hinge is desmodont. Only young specimens have a byssus. The pallial sinus is large and the siphons are bound together in a tube which is made from a continuation of the periostracum. The larger species of the family are very common on mud flats in the northern Atlantic.The Mya live deep in the mud, and when disturbed, they may eject water before burrowing at high speed down in their tunnel of more than one meter deep.

Source: Poppe and Goto, 1993.

The following subtaxa of this family occur in the region:

Genus Mya
Mya arenaria
Mya truncata
Genus Sphenia
Sphenia binghami

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