Pinna nobilis

Pinna nobilis
Pinna nobilis: shell and byssus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Pterioida
Family:	Pinnidae
Genus:	Pinna
Species:	P. nobilis
Binomial name
Pinna nobilis Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
Pinna gigas Chemnitz

Live specimen of P. nobilis, looking into the shell from above

Pinna nobilis, common name the "noble pen shell" is a species of pen shell, a large marine bivalve mollusc in the family Pinnidae, the 'pen shells'.

The bivalve shell can grow almost 91 cm (3 feet) long, and its shape is variable. Like all pen shells it is relatively fragile. It attaches itself to rocks using a strong "cable" composed of many silk-like hairs, or byssus, fibre the shell produces. The inside of the shell is lined with brilliant mother-of-pearl.

This species is the origin of sea silk, which was made made from the byssus of the animal. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, and lives offshore down to a depth of 20 metres.

Unfortunately, in recent years, Pinna nobilis has become threatened with extinction, partly due to overfishing, the fact that the mollusc is edible, the decline in seagrass fields, and pollution.

The very fine byssus threads of P. nobilis

References

• Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1. See Section 12 plus "Appendix B - Sea Silk".
• Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West. A draft annotated translation of the 3rd century Weilüe – see Section 12 of the text and Appendix D.
• Laufer, Berthold. 1915. "The Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb", The Journal of American Folk-lore 28.108:103-128.
• McKinley, Daniel L. 1988. "Pinna and Her Silken Beard: A Foray Into Historical Misappropriations". Ars Textrina: A Journal of Textiles and Costumes, Vol. Twenty-nine, June, 1998, Winnipeg, Canada. pp. 9–223.
• Maeder, Felicitas 2002. "The project Sea-silk – Rediscovering an Ancient Textile Material." Archaeological Textiles Newsletter, Number 35, Autumn 2002, pp. 8–11.
• Maeder, Felicitas, Hänggi, Ambros and Wunderlin, Dominik, Eds. 2004. Bisso marino : Fili d’oro dal fondo del mare – Muschelseide : Goldene Fäden vom Meeresgrund. Naturhistoriches Museum and Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland. (In Italian and German).
• Schafer, Edward H. 1967. The Vermillion Bird: T'ang Images of the South. University of California Press.
• Turner, Ruth D. and Rosewater, Joseph 1958. "The Family Pinnidae in the Western Atlantic" Johnsonia, Vol. 3 No. 38, June 28, 1958, pp. 285–326.
• R. Tucker Abbott & S. Peter Dance, 1982, “Compendium of seashells: a color guide to more than 4,200 of the world’s marine shells”, E.P. Dutton Inc., New York. ISBN 0-525-93269-0.
• Tyndale (1849): The Island of Sardinia, including Pictures of the Manners and Customs of the Sardinians, . . . Three Volumes. John Warre Tyndale. London: Richard Bentley.

External links

• [1] Image of two shells