Mytilus (bivalve)

Mytilus
Temporal range: Triassic–Present
Mytilus edulis in the intertidal zone in Cornwall, England
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Mytilida
Family: Mytilidae
Subfamily: Mytilinae
Genus: Mytilus
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Mytilus edulis
Species

See text

Mytilus edulis shells washed up on the beach

Mytilus is a cosmopolitan genus of medium to large-sized edible, mainly saltwater mussels, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae.[1]

Mytilus mussel in California, showing the byssus threads
  1. ^ A.W.B. Powell, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1