Author Notes - Here is our first Pikmin 1 exclusive family, and the only one that wasn't a boss/miniboss: the Pearly Clamclamp! The lack of any real notes on this thing made it difficult, but both Sophisticated Sableye's story and Pikipedia gave me something to work with.

CLAMPSHELL FAMILY

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Venerida

EMILY'S PERSONAL NOTES

Pearly Clamclamps are a little interesting, if only because they're one of the only creatures that Olimar has no official notes on. So that makes extra work for me. Which I'm fine with! It's really fun, actually. Still, having no notes to go on makes things a little, erm, risky. For instance, I wasn't expecting this thing to swing its jaw down on top of me. Or for it to 'chew' my leg. Or for it to try to 'swallow' me. Or for the dang thing to be on land. Seriously, WHAT?

The way this thing creaks as it opens its jaws kinda reminds of the Tin Man. Really random observation, but still. HEY, maybe that's why it stays away from water outside of breeding season: because it rusts when wet, just like the Tin Man! … Wait, no. That's really stupid. It isn't made of metal!

PHYSICAL APPEARANCES

The Lapis regrettabilis (Pearly Clamclamps) highly resembles the ocean-dwelling molluscs such as the Cerastoderma edule (Common Cockle). It has two shells connected by a 'hinge', which are both light pink in colour and covered with faded green streaks that resemble moss or seaweed. The shells have 'ripples' that extend all the way to the 'hinge', much like the aforementioned Common Cockle. The inside of these shells is a mix of white, light blue, and light pink. While the top shell is completely hollow, the inside of the bottom shell contains a pink mass resembling a pillow.

HABITAT

The strangest part about the Clamclamp isn't its appearance or even the way it gathers energy, but instead its habitat. Unlike every other member in the Venerida order - which are found mostly in seawater but can also be found in fresher waters - the Clamclamp makes its habitat in the middle of the forest. It typically lives around small ponds, but is never fully-submerged in the waters and will often be found sitting on land or on a small island instead of in the water itself.

This - of course - raises many questions as to how an animal normally belonging only in aquatic areas has found its way onto land, and unfortunately these questions can only be answered by pure speculation. A very common theory is that the Clamclamp's ancestors were indeed ocean-dwellers, but were brought onto land through either a flood or powerful wave. Another theory states they were merely pond-dwellers in the forest, but when the pond dried up they were forced to adapt to the lack of water.

DIET AND DEFENCES

Due to their terrestrial lifestyle, Clamclamps cannot filter feed like their aquatic brethren. Instead, they adapted a unique hunting method not unlike that of the Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap). The Clamclamp will turn any undigested foodstuff into a pearl-like object, in a very similar manner to other bivalves. It creates the shiny beads by layering secretions made of the same material that its shells are made of. While other bivalves create their pearls to protect themselves against irritates, the Clamclamp creates the pearl-like beads to attract prey.

The beads are protected by a thick, glass-like membrane made from a thick mucus. This, combined with the natural sheen of the bead, creates a very shiny object that attracts all sorts of prey. The Clamclamp favours insects and Pikmin, but will consume whatever victim fits into its jaws. It has been seen eating anything between Dwarf Bulborbs and Spectralids. When the unfortunate prey is drawn in by the bead, it will wait until the prey walks into the pillow-like pink slab. The Clamclamp has no sense of sight or smell and relies on the touch sensors on this pink slab to tell when its prey has arrived.

It waits another second to make sure it is a living being and not a bit of debris, before raising up its jaw slowly. The sound it makes as it does so is akin to a rusty hinge. This is the last warning one has before it suddenly slams its jaw shut, trapping any unfortunate animal within it. From the outside, it appears to 'chew' its prey, but in reality it is dissolving its meal into the basic compounds with acidic saliva. Once its prey is adequately dissolved - a process that takes only a few seconds - it will absorb the nutrients through the same pores the saliva is excreted, and use the unused foodstuff to create more beads to attract more prey.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Clamclamps are solitary creatures who pay little to no attention to others of its species. In fact, it is incapable of identifying when there is another Clamclamp in the vicinity. Because of this, multiple Clamclamps can coexist in a small area without any conflicts. If there isn't enough food to sustain them all, the unlucky Clamclamps will simply starve.

COURTING AND CHILDREARING

Clamclamps are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive parts. Due to living on land instead of in water, they cannot spread their genetic material into the waters to drift. This requires them to have wildly different means of reproduction compared to other members of the Venerida order. The best way to describe their method of reproduction is a reversal of how sea turtles typically breed.

Contrary to popular belief, Clamclamps are capable of movement, though it is slow and limited and thus they will typically only move for the purposes of reproduction. When a Clamclamp goes into heat, it will slowly scuttle its body across the ground towards the nearest body of water. Once it has reached the shallow waters, it will produce eggs that it can self-fertilise and lay them in the water. It lays up to a hundred eggs only approximately 0.3mm in length, and will return to its feeding spot as soon as every egg is laid, leaving the offspring to take care of themselves.

After a week, the larvae will hatch and begin to eat microscopic organisms in the water. Most of the larvae will not survive, either by starving or being hunted by predators or even their own siblings. It takes several weeks for them to get their shells, and once they become too big for the shallow waters they will go onto land and choose a spot. It will not move from this spot until it is time to lay its eggs, whereupon it will return to the same body of water it grew up in.

All offspring in any particular litter have identical genetic make-up to each other and its parent, and any surviving offspring will return to the same body of water to lay its eggs. This is the only reason it is able to seek out the water at all, since it remembers where it hatched.

OTHER NOTES

The bead it produces to attract prey is - thanks to being created by foodstuff - loaded with nutrients. It's near impossible to get said nutrients, but the Pikmin onions can break it down with ease. The bead is often referred to as a 'pearl', but this classification is incorrect due to having a completely different make-up of materials. However, it is hard to tell the difference, and the 'common folk' may be scammed into buying a 'pearl' for much more money than it's truly worth.

They are very long-lived. One particular specimen - nicknamed Ding - was noted to be 507 years old, making it perhaps the longest-living creature in the ecosystem. Alas, this was only found out after its death. Whether this is old for such a species or is in fact the average lifespan is yet to be known, for its age can only be told after it has died.

NOTES FROM OTHER RESEARCHERS

Pearly Clamclamp -

The evolution of this planet baffles me. A clam is one thing but… this one is found in the FOREST. I don't even think I've seen an ocean, aside from the Tropical Wilds! How did something like that even happen? - Alph

That pearl is beautiful and valuable, but it turns out that it's a trap for the clam to eat you. There's probably a metaphor about life or romance or something in there, but I'm too distracted by the shiny to- OW! - Brittany

I don't like dirty tactics, but I have to hand it to this fella. Luring in my soldiers with a trap to eliminate them is a brilliant (if ethically-questionable) strategy. Maybe we should try it ourselves... But the only bait lovely enough that I can think of is Elizabeth, and I won't be putting HER in danger! - Captain Charlie

Author Notes - Coming up with a way for this dang thing to reproduce was very difficult, seeing as clams rely on the WATER IN THE OCEAN to do it, and I didn't want the notes to be simply 'it is unknown how it reproduces' since that's lame and boring. The 'self-producing reversed sea turtles' was all I could manage with what little I had.

The Clamclamp known as 'Ding' is a reference to 'Ming', the longest living creature currently known. Of course, we only found out about this after Ming was accidentally killed, unfortunately. Still, it's the longest living creature we know, so there's a very good chance there's another clam or some other animal out there that lived longer. Maybe even to a thousand years! We might never know...

Anyway, I hope you like seafood, cos we're doing the Mawdads next! Wait, they're actually called crawmads? Huh.