How do oysters make pearls?

Weather of Arabia - Most jewelry is made of precious metals, and this jewelry is often buried underground, but pearls are considered a unique exception, as they are formed inside a living organism, which is an oyster. It can be said that pearls are the product of an amazing biological process, as pearls are a type It is a biological reaction that oysters perform as part of their own way to protect themselves from foreign substances.

Oysters are not the only type of mollusk capable of producing pearls. In addition to oysters, mussels can also produce pearls, but this is rare. Most pearl production occurs by oysters in freshwater and saltwater environments. To understand how pearls form in oysters, you must You should first begin by understanding the basic anatomy of oysters.

Oyster and pearl formation

The shell of the bivalve oyster consists of two parts, or two valves. These valves are held together by an elastic ligament. This ligament is placed at the point where the two valves connect. The two valves usually remain open for the oyster to be able to eat.

The oyster consists of several parts inside its shell. These parts include the mouth, stomach, heart, intestines, gills, anus, abductor muscle, and mantle. As the size of the oyster increases, its shell must expand as well. This expansion occurs when new material is added to the edges of its shell. This material is produced by the mantle. It is a thin layer of tissue that covers the inside of the oyster shell. The mantle contains glands that extract minerals from the water, transforming them into the building blocks of its solid shell.

The mantle secretes calcium carbonate minerals, the same material used to make chalk, as well as organic protein. These materials form together with the crust. Calcium carbonate, which covers the crust's basic protein structure, makes up 98 percent of the crust's composition.

The oyster shell, or exoskeleton, consists of three different layers: the outer layer is known as the periosteum, the middle layer is the prismatic, and the innermost layer is the shell, which lines the interior of the oyster shell.

Notably, the nacre layer that lines the inside of the shell is also known as the “pearl layer” due to its shiny, light-reflecting properties, and is sometimes called “mother of pearl” due to its key role in pearl formation.

How do oysters make pearls?

Although many people believe that pearls are formed when a stray grain of sand unexpectedly gets into a mollusk's shell, the reality is quite different from this.

In fact, sand, which is common in aquatic mollusk environments, plays no role at all in the formation of pearls. Instead, pearls are created when stimulant materials, such as food particles or parasites, creep between the shell of an oyster or other mollusk, and are deposited in the mantle, the wall The internal muscles of these organisms.

When these organisms encounter a threat, they secrete a fluid containing aragonite (a carbonate mineral) and conchiolin (a protein) . When this secretion mixes with foreign matter, what is known as nacre or mother-of-pearl is formed. According to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, these layers transform over time into What eventually becomes a pearl.

The ancient history of pearls

Pearls are distinguished by their unique luster, which makes them a desirable commodity throughout the ages and in various cultures. In Hindu mythology, people believed that the moon dropped dew drops into the sea to turn into pearls, while Greek mythology said that pearls were tears of joy shed by the goddess Aphrodite. According to the American Gemological Society.

Regardless of the source of pearls, they were often valued more than gold and sometimes diamonds, and were often used in jewelry making or as a means of trade. Therefore, it is not surprising that pearls had a connection with the nobility, as Julius Caesar passed a law granting only aristocrats the right to wear pearls. in Rome.

In addition, the novel states that Cleopatra helped recreate a particular scene using pearls as part of a bet with Mark Antony. This combination of diamonds, gold and pearls shows its own value and beauty and even today, pearls still captivate people's hearts with their charm and unique beauty that is shaped in strange and beautiful ways.

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Sources:

howstuffworks

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