How do oysters make pearls?
How do oysters make pearls? Most jewelry is fashioned out of precious metals and jewels that are found buried in the Earth, but pearls are found inside a living creature, an oyster. Pearls are the result of a biological process — the oyster’s way of protecting itself from foreign substances. Oysters are not the only type of mollusk that can produce pearls. Clams and mussels can also produce pearls, but that is a much rarer occurrence. Most pearls are produced by oysters in both freshwater and saltwater environments. To understand how pearls are formed in oysters, you must first understand an oyster’s basic anatomy. Oysters are bivalves, which means that its shell is made of two parts, or valves. The shell’s valves are held together by an elastic ligament. This ligament is positioned where the valves come tog
Most jewelry is fashioned out of precious metals and jewels that are found buried in the Earth, but pearls are found inside a living creature, an oyster. Pearls are the result of a biological process — the oyster’s way of protecting itself from foreign substances. Oysters are not the only type of mollusk that can produce pearls. Clams and mussels can also produce pearls, but that is a much rarer occurrence. Most pearls are produced by oysters in both freshwater and saltwater environments. To understand how pearls are formed in oysters, you must first understand an oyster’s basic anatomy. Oysters are bivalves, which means that its shell is made of two parts, or valves. The shell’s valves are held together by an elastic ligament. This ligament is positioned where the valves come together, and usually keeps the
