Marine Wildlife Encyclopedia
Common Edible Cockle Cerastoderma edule
The common edible cockle is a bivalve that has a robust, ribbed shell and burrows in dense populations just below the surface of sand or mud, filtering organic matter such as plankton from the water. Free-swimming larvae emerge from its fertilized eggs. Adult common edible cockles sink to the sea floor, where they assume a more sedentary lifestyle.
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- Order Bivalvia
- Length Up to 2 in (5 cm)
- Habitat Middle and lower shore, 2 in (5 cm) below surface of sand or mud
- Distribution Barents Sea, eastern north Atlantic from Norway to Senegal, West Africa
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