Cherry stones

About this species

The hard clam, also known as the round clam, hard-shell clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams. Older literature sources may use the systematic name Venus mercenaria; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Hard clam”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 252 records
February: 350 records
March: 437 records
April: 846 records
May: 593 records
June: 691 records
July: 845 records
August: 800 records
September: 590 records
October: 491 records
November: 331 records
December: 342 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–27 m · Deepest record: 287 m

0–10 m: 319 records
10–20 m: 53 records
20–30 m: 33 records
30–40 m: 13 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 6 records
60–70 m: 2 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 4 records
110+ m: 7 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 7–29 °C

6–8 °C: 4 records
8–10 °C: 8 records
10–12 °C: 13 records
12–14 °C: 46 records
14–16 °C: 21 records
16–18 °C: 10 records
18–20 °C: 3 records
20–22 °C: 8 records
22–24 °C: 10 records
24–26 °C: 4 records
26–28 °C: 10 records
28–30 °C: 2 records

Photos

(c) Jessica Utrup, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Matt Pelikan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jonathan Layman, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sinéad Tuttle-Lerner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Benny Albro, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sinéad Tuttle-Lerner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Cherry stones, Hard clam, Hard shell, Little necks, Northern quahog, Quahog, American Hard-shelled Clam, Cherrystone Clam, cherry stones, Cherry Stones, hard clam, Hard Clam, hard shell, Hard Shell, Hard-shelled clam, Littleneck Clam, little necks, Little Necks, Northern Quahog, Northern Quahog, Hard Clam, Hard Shell, Little-necked Clam, Cherrystone Clam, Qahog, quahog, Topneck Clam

Names in 4 more languages

German: Nördliche Quahog-Muschel, nördliche Venusmuschel
Spanish: Almeja dura
French: clam, palourde américaine, Palourde américaine, Praire, praire, quahog
Japanese: ホンビノスガイ

Other scientific names: Crassivenus mercenaria, Mercenaria cancellata, Mercenaria fulgurans, Mercenaria rutila, Mercenaria violacea, Meretrix rutila, Venus (Venus) cyprinoides, Venus mercenaria, Venus notata, Venus obliqua, Venus submercenaria, Venus ziczac

Similar species

New Zealand Cockle
Austrovenus stutchburyi
Wedding-cake venus
Bassina disjecta
Cockle-like Venus
Chioneryx cardioides
Chinese Venus Clam
Cyclina sinensis
Old-woman dosinia
Dosinia anus
Blue-Tinged Dosinia
Dosinia caerulea

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
2,275 open-data records from 1870 to 2025.
Species data updated November 4, 2026.