It’s fair to say that mussels and other mollusks are not normally considered particularly active. Recently, however, scientists documented water-squirting behavior in just one species, which appears to use the behavior to give the larvae a fighting chance.
For this study, a Cambridge University team led by Professor David Aldridge looked at fresh water. thick unions Mussels on the Biala Tarnowska river in Poland in spring. There have been anecdotal reports of mussels repeatedly spewing water out of riverbanks, but the phenomenon has never been scientifically documented or understood.
Scientists have actually seen female mussels migrate to the edge of a river, lift the edge of their back out of the water, and squirt up to 1 meter (3.3 feet) of water into the river. They were doing that from him 3 hours to he 6 hours at a time.
Cambridge University
Like other freshwater mussels, thick unions The larvae are released into the water and caught in the gills of passing fish. There the larvae develop into juvenile mussels, at which point they slough off and settle in the river bed.
Larvae often only survive on certain types of fish…and this is especially true for fish thick unions Larva.
With this survival challenge in mind, scientists speculated that the water-squirting behavior was intended to attract compatible fish such as minnows and chub and deliver larvae to them. Sure enough, analysis of sea squirts from multiple mussels showed that they all contained viable mussel larvae.
“Who would have thought that brainless mussels would know that in the spring they migrate to riverbanks and spew water back into the river?” said Aldridge. “very.”
Unique behavior may also be at least part of the reason. thick unions It is an endangered species. By moving to river edges, mussel females become more vulnerable to terrestrial predators such as minks, and can be further stymied by flooding and shoreline destruction.
In the video below, you can see one of the mussels squirting water and larvae. The study is described in a paper recently published in the journal. ecology.
Mussel spout movie
Source: University of Cambridge
