Chama macerophylla, also know generally as the Leafy Jewelbox or the Bermuda Rock Cockle, is a common Bermudian mollusk that is found in coastal waters ranging from the mean low tide to a depth of 20 meters. It is a bivalve with heavy, unequal valves that lives attached by its left shell to hard substrata including rocks, coral, and manmade objects. The species, approximately ten centimeters in diameter is brightly colored, ranging from yellow, to orange, or purple. The shape of this mollusk is variable, as the left valve attached to a substrate often takes on the substrate’s shape, while the top valve often becomes damaged and loses its color and structure. Shells of the Leafy Jewelbox are covered with ribbed, leafy projections arranged in irregularly radiating rows, giving this bivalve its leafy look and name.
This species is a
sessile part of the benthos and gains its sustenance by filter feeding
particles from the water column. Members of this species are gonochoric, and
fertilization occurs externally. The resulting larva is called a trochophore,
and when it develops it becomes a veliger larvae. Both larval stages are
planktonic and free-swimming and settle to hard substrata to become sessile
adults. Although the Leafy Jewelbox has no commercial value in the seafood
industry, it costs fishermen and corporations a great deal of money each year
to prevent and remove this species from ships hulls and docks because of its
characteristic fouling nature. Researchers have recently studied C.
macerophylla to investigate the effects of dumping oil and gas wastewater into the
ocean.