{"id":18009,"date":"2023-12-11T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T05:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18009"},"modified":"2025-04-05T08:05:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T02:35:35","slug":"pinna-nobilis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pinna-nobilis\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Pinna nobilis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Pinna nobilis<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a large\u00a0species of Mediterranean clam, a marine\u00a0bivalve mollusc in the family Pinnidae.<\/li>\n<li>The clams, whose shells can grow as much as 1.2 m across, play an important ecological role by\u00a0filtering sea water and allowing other\u00a0organisms to flourish.<\/li>\n<li>It attaches itself to rocks using a strong byssus composed of many silk-like threads which used to be made into cloth.<\/li>\n<li>The animal\u00a0secretes these fibres from its byssus gland; they consist of keratin and other proteins and may be as long as 6 cm (2.4 in). The inside of the shell is lined with brilliant mother-of-pearl.<\/li>\n<li>As with other members of its genus,\u00a0Pinna nobilis hosts symbiotic shrimp which live inside its shell.<\/li>\n<li>It is believed that when it sees a threat, the shrimp warns the host, perhaps by retracting its claws or even by pinching. The clam then closes shut.<\/li>\n<li>It has been demonstrated that the shrimp has a similar filter-feeding diet to its host and the relationship is likely mutualistic.<\/li>\n<li>Distribution:\u00a0This species is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Threats:\u00a0It is relatively\u00a0fragile to pollution and shell damage.<\/li>\n<li>The clam, known as the\u00a0noble pen shell or pinna nobilis, started dying out as a deadly pathogen spread in parts of the Mediterranean around 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Conservation status\n<ul>\n<li>IUCN: Critically endangered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Mollusks?<\/h3>\n<p>These are any soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, usually wholly or partly enclosed in a calcium carbonate shell secreted by a soft mantle covering the body. Along with the insects and vertebrates, it is one of the most diverse groups in the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/reader?utm_source=Hindu&amp;utm_medium=Menu&amp;utm_campaign=Header\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Pinna nobilis: Comeback hero<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pinna nobilis  is a large species of Mediterranean clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Pinnidae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}