What is mixotrophy and why does it matter?
I wrote about mixotrophy, the under-appreciated "why not both" solution some organisms take to use both sunlight and other organisms for food.
Clamsplaining
I m Dan Killam. I m an environmental scientist studying clams, climate, pollution, and conservation.
Latest posts
Concurring with The Onion: There Absolutely Nothing We Can Learn from Clams
I wrote an article concurring with the recent Onion article: "Biologists Announce There Absolutely Nothing We Can Learn From Clams"
Fighting a clamdemic: A golden mussel FAQ
I wrote about the invasion of golden mussels in California, what we know and what we still have to figure out!
What are pearls?
I often get asked what pearls are and why bivalves make them. Pearls are biogenic gemstones. This means they are valuable rocks made not by inorganic crystallization within the earth, like most gemstones, but instead are produced by life! Interestingly, they are living rocks, composed of true minerals. When I talk about minerals, I mean Continue reading What are pearls?
Environmentally, you’ve got to hand it to Sauron
And now for something completely non clam-related a speculative essay about LOTR as an environmental allegory, drawing on my posts to social media last week that clearly struck a nerve. I m the first to admit that Sauron s rule of Mordor was highly problematic. But frankly, I think those concerns, focusing largely on his foreign policy, have Continue reading Environmentally, you ve got to hand it…
The Biodiversity Collections Crisis
You might be familiar with the concept of the present biodiversity crisis . There is an increasing consensus in the ecological research community that the current loss of species this planet is experiencing is not sustainable, in the sense that the loss of some species may precipitate the loss of more, in an accelerating spiral. The Continue reading The Biodiversity Collections Crisis
Research Explainer: How giant clams record their diet in their shells
You are what you eat, and clams are too. We re made of atoms, which come in flavors called isotopes, relating back to the mass of the atoms themselves (how many protons and neutrons they have). Nitrogen, for example, comes in two stable (non-radioactive) forms called nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15. Much like scientists can track the composition Continue reading Research Explainer: How giant clams…
This blog is now followable on Mastodon!
If you use Mastodon (or another Fediverse service), you can now follow this blog from there. As you might know, Mastodon is one of my favorite places to communicate science, so this is a cool feature for me! You can follow me by searching @dantheclamman.blog@dantheclamman.blog from your Mastodon page. Or maybe you re already viewing this Continue reading This blog is now followable on Mastodon!
Research Explainer: Comparing the daily shell diaries of giant clams and scallops
In 2020, I got an interesting email in my inbox from another mollusk researcher! Niels de Winter had emailed me, who I was familiar with from his past work on big Cretaceous rudist bivalves and giant snails. Niels had seen my paper published that year on giant clam shell isotopes from the Gulf of Aqaba Continue reading Research Explainer: Comparing the daily shell diaries of giant clams and…
What cyborg clams can teach us about the ocean
Every clam is a door into the sea. If the door of its shell is open, the clam may be happily breathing, or eating, or doing other weirder things. If the door is closed, it may be hiding from a predator, or preventing itself from drying out at low tide, or protecting itself from some Continue reading What cyborg clams can teach us about the ocean