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This article is about genus of clams. For other uses, see Mercenaria (disambiguation).

Mercenaria

Hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Bivalvia
Order:	Veneroida
Family:	Veneridae
Genus:	Mercenaria Schumacher, 1817

Species

See text.

Mercenaria is a genus of edible saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Veneridae, the Venus clams.

The genus Mercenaria includes the quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria, the northern quahog or hard clam, and M. campechiensis, the southern quahog. These two species commonly hybridise where their ranges overlap.

Other species within the genus include the venus clam M. stimpsoni found in north Pacific waters.

All these species were formerly placed in the related genus Venus. Several other species are known only from fossils.

Extant species

Southern quahog, Mercenaria campechiensis
Northern quahog or hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria
Venus clam, Mercenaria stimpsoni

Fossil species

Mercenaria corrugata
Mercenaria druidi
Mercenaria permagna
Mercenaria tridacnoides

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Mercenaria

Extant species

Fossil species

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		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mercenaria". Read more