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CARDIIDAE 401
Exterior orange-yellow; interior china-white. This is the largest species of
recent cockles and is moderately common.
Genus Dinocardium Dall 1900
Dinocardiu77t robustum Solander Giant Atlantic Cockle
Virginia to north Florida, Texas and Mexico.
Plate 32a
3 to 4 inches in size, ovate, inflated, with 32 to 36 rounded, radial,
smoothish ribs. Externally straw-yellow with its posterior slope mahoganyred
shading toward purple near the edge. Interior rose, with brownish
posteriorly and with a white anterior margin. This is the large, common
cockle washed ashore along the Carolina and Georgia strands. It is not found
in southwest Florida.
When the Florida Canal project was begun in 1935,
President F. D.
Roosevelt was presented with a large silver platter on which was set a
specimen of Di7iocardium, encased in gold and containing a portion of the
first earth excavated as a result of the blast set off by the President. The
canal was never completed.
Dinocardium robustwit vanhyningi Clench and L. C. Smith
Vanhyning's Cockle
Tampa Bay to Cape Sable, Florida.
Plate 32b
3% to 5 inches in size, higher than long, with 32 to 36, smoothish,
rounded, radial ribs. Externally straw-yellow with irregular patches and
bands of mahogany-red to purplish brown. It is more elongate, glossier and
more colorful than robustum, and is the common, large cockle on the west
coast of Florida. They are popular souvenirs, being used for ash trays,
melted-butter dishes, baking dishes and for holding pincushions.
Genus Serripes Gould 1841
There is only one species of this peculiar genus of cockles in North
American waters. The hinge is narrow, the cardinal teeth weak, and the
ligament is large. The radial ribs are very weak.
Serripes groenlandiczis Bruguiere Greenland Cockle
Plate 32d
Arctic Seas to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Alaska to Puget Sound, Wash-
ington.
2 to 4 inches in length, moderately thin bur strong, inflated, almost