๐ฆ Animal world ๐ฌ Sea animals
The oyster
๐ In short
The oyster is a sea animal that lives inside a hard shell made of two halves. It lives in warm and mild seas and coasts, sticking to rocks or other oysters without moving. Inside is a soft body, and sometimes it makes something very precious: a pearl!
๐คฉ Did you know?
- After one year an oyster is about 2.5 centimeters across.
- Some oysters can be 30 centimeters long.
- About two thousand years ago the Romans sent oysters from England to Rome.
- A pearl can take several years to form.
๐ Find out more
๐ How does it eat?
An oyster opens its shell a little and draws water into its body, then filters it and keeps the tiny living things it eats. That way it cleans the sea water too.
๐ How does a pearl form?
If a grain of sand or something small gets between an oyster's shell and its body, it bothers the oyster, so it coats it in shiny smooth layers, one after another, until it becomes a pearl.
๐ก Pearl diving
Long ago, people of the Arabian Gulf dived into the sea without breathing equipment to collect oysters and search them for pearls. It was a hard, brave job.
๐ฏ Babies that swim
Baby oysters swim in the water for a few days, then pick a rock to stick to and stay there the rest of their lives.
๐ธ More pictures
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 What precious thing does an oyster make?
2 Who used to dive for pearls?
3 After one year an oyster is about ?? centimeters across.
4 Which picture shows โThe oysterโ?
๐ฆ Discover more
๐ท Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons
- David Monniaux ยท CC BY-SA 3.0
- DJC1970 ยท Public domain
- Jud McCranie ยท CC BY-SA 4.0
- Erik Anestad from USA ยท CC BY 2.0
