''Hyotissa mcgintyi'', also known as ''Parahyotissa mcgintyi'', is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of medium-sized saltwater "oyster", a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Gryphaeidae The Gryphaeidae, common name the foam oysters or honeycomb oysters, are a family of marine bivalve mollusks. This family of bivalves is very well represented in the fossil record, however the number of living species is very few. All species ...

. This species occurs in the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Species in this

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

are known as "honeycomb oysters" or "foam oysters" because under magnification, the majority of their shell structure is characteristically foam-like.

References

The original paper about the discovery of ''Hyotissa hyotis'' in the Florida Keys, which also mentions this species
* Paula M. Mikkelsen and Rudiger Bieler, 2008, ''Seashells of Southern Florida: Living Marine mollusks of the Florida Keys and adjacent regions'', Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, Gryphaeidae Molluscs described in 1985 {{bivalve-stub