Internet killjoy: Clams don't have giant tongues

This popular video is a great example of why cartoon-level humanization of animals doesn't really work. Yes, it looks like this clam just stuck its tongue out and licked up a bunch of salt. But clams don't have tongues. Let alone giant tongues that would take up most of the clam's body.

In reality, that's a foot.

Have you ever looked at a mollusk like a clam and wondered whether and how it moves? That foot would be how. Clams use it for digging, because they live most of their lives buried in sand and mud. It can also be used for limited movement—usually, to get back into the water and then get reburied in the sand and mud.

Business Insider interviewed a couple of marine biologists who agree that the whole "salt-licking" thing is really just a side effect of this clam sticking out it's gooey foot.

Brian Bayne, a marine researcher from the University of Sydney agreed that this clam is definitely not feeding.

"These clams live buried in mud and they get there by digging-in with a large, mobile foot (which looks convincingly like a tongue), he said. "This clam, stranded on someone's floor, is trying to dig itself back home."

To take away the sting of scientific accuracy, after the cut you will find another YouTube video in which a (happy?) clam successfully uses its foot to return to the ocean. It's pretty cool.

Read the rest of the Business Insider story.

Also, please enjoy this handy diagram of clam anatomy.

Thanks to Mandy J Watson for drawing my attention to the video!

• [planettom]

  Clams got legs!

  • [ImmutableMichael]

    From memory, the clams were going to kick him to death.

• [akbar56]

  What I want to know is….how the hell did that video get 250k hits in less than 2 days?

• [robdobbs]

  THANKS YOU!

  I wasn’t able to comment on the original video but all I was able to think was that that clam is trying to get away from it’s tormentors. It was to leave.

  besides, they should have glued eyes on it.

  • [relawson]

     YES!  http://fishhooks.wikia.com/wiki/Clamantha

    haha!

• [shutz]

  Obligatory royal clam cooking show segment from a few years ago:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3_nqa7n9A

  This is a cooking show from Québec.  I could attempt to translate for those of you who don’t understand French, but I don’t really think it’s that necessary.

• [blueelm]

  I’m pretty sure that’s a kitchen table it’s stranded on. Which makes me wonder. Is salt licking clam on the menu there or something?

• [SKR]

  Clams may not have big tongues, but they have big feet. ;)

• [foobar]

  Well that is terrifying.

• [ndlxs]

  The facts about clams, courtesy of Arlo Guthrie:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9TxeqeDCE

• [Josiah White]

  Why would clams lick salt anyway, since they live in the freaking ocean full of saltwater.

• [Mandy J Watson]

  Ha! Internet fame. Thank you for answering my question!

• [Red Pill Junkie]

  Clammy is just sticking its tongue to all the cynic killjoys of the web.

• [Daemonworks]

  To be fair, a clam’s foot is structurally more like a tongue than an actual foot.

• [Øyvind]

  For some reason, the first thing that popped into my mind was “i wonder if they ever “bite” their own foot, like i sometimes bite my cheek…”

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Do you bite your foot at us, sir?

• [peterkvt80]

  I imagine that pure salt would sting the clam. It is a good way to mess up their electrolyte level.

  • [Maggie Koerth-Baker]

    But … it’s got what clams crave. 

• [Jenn Chlebus]

  The clam chowder I had yesterday is writhing in sympathy. That video needed a warning label of some kind…. I think I have a gastropod phobia.

• [Paul Renault]

  As kids, we’d call them the peepees.  We’d still eat them, too.

• [SWPL_Bro]

  I have the weirdest boner right now.

• [Evan G.]

  To quote Grayson from last season’s Top Chef…”Jam out with your clam out.”

• [Feathered Frog]

  I suspect that bivalve in the second vid is a scallop and NOT a clam.