In an article adroitly headlined "F*cked Up Video of a Clam," Kelly Faircloth of Jezebel introduced the Twitterverse to an unnerving video of a geoduck wriggling its way into a mound of sand.
The video, originally posted to Facebook by Oregon fly-fishing guide Kate Taylor to Facebook, is entrancingly awful to watch.
The creature in the video is a Pacific razor clam, though it looks enough like a geoduck to befuddle even a knowledgeable biologist:
Correction: Pacific Razor Clam. I am an East Coast Elitist. https://t.co/LG7B7c4sYF
— Andrew Thaler (@DrAndrewThaler) May 10, 2017
Digging into wet sand is a survival technique for the critter, according to Earth Touch News. If it stayed above the sand after being exposed by the waves, the clam would dry out. The moist beach can protect it.
Here's Earth Touch's explanation of the digging motion:
That wriggling noodle on the right side of the clam is the muscular foot, a structure that both pushes sand out of the way and acts as an anchor to pull the animal to the desired destination. On the other end is one of the siphons, tube-like straws that move water over the gills ... which brings us to the momentous eruption at the end of the clip. While many commenters online have suggested the clam is expelling the remnants of a large meal, that brown eruption is a combination of water and sand.
You can watch Taylor's full video below. You're going to want to watch until the end.
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