Ancient Oyster with Giant Pearl?
By tony leather, 9th Jun 2012 | Follow this author
| RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/hkg8wxnm/
Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
Any oyster will only produce a pearl if some small irritant gets into the shell, requiring being covered - defensively - with nacre, layers of which coat the object, forming a pearl.
Ancient Oyster with Giant Pearl?
Experts at the Portsmouth, England Blue Reef Aquarium in, are trying to work out just what the huge oyster shell pictured above might hold within it, confident that it might be a precious stone of great value, though none found in UK waters, as this was, could ever match the rarity and beauty of natural black pearls'
This massive mollusc fossil - 10 X average oyster size, maybe 100 million years old - could contain a golf-ball size pearl - but as valuable as this might be, it could never compete with that pictured below, the, clam-produced, Gigantic Pearl of Allah, weighing in at 14 lbs and said to be worth $60 million or thereabouts.
Oyster B
Any oyster will only produce a pearl if some small irritant gets into the shell, requiring being covered - defensively - with nacre, layers of which coat the object, forming a pearl. At certain times of year, Polynesian black-lipped pearl oysters spawn, resulting baby oysters - spats - fixing themselves to the coral.
Pearl farmers collect them, then rear them on underwater lines for 3 years, and when mature, graft a small, round piece of mother-of-pearl - dubbed the nucleus - into the body of the oyster, stimulating the secretion of nacre around the object, then nurtured for at least seven or eight years.
Oyster C
Once the pearls are formed, they are carefully removed and the oysters allowed some time to recuperate. As simple as this process sounds, the delicacy of this particular Oyster species means only one third of oysters actually produce pearls, of which two at most will be perfect.
This is the reason that black pearls are particularly highly prized, though none more so than those found which have not been farmed but grown naturally. These are so rare that a decent example can be worth thousands of dollars, any necklace made from such pearls almost priceless.
The Pearl is of course seen in many religions as a bringer of extreme good fortune, and is the birthstone of those born under the sign of Gemini. Pearls are said to represent longevity in love, wisdom and peace, and there is little doubt that any women feels blessed indeed when able to string a necklace of real pearls around her neck. No wonder these precious natural gems have always been so highly regarded.
Comments