Here are some pearl facts for you to learn and brag to your friends.
- English pirates John Hawkins and Francis Drake were secretly encouraged by Queen Elizabeth I, and routinely seized pearls from Spanish vessels whenever they could.
- The Royals of the 1500’s and 1600’s wore pearls from all over the world – European freshwater, marine pearls from the Persian Gulf, American Pearls and pearls seized by loyal pirates from passing ships.
- Pearls are produced by mollusks, a phylum that includes snails, scallops, mussels, octopus, squid, and oysters of over 100,000 living species.
- The feature shared by all mollusks that defines it scientifically is its mantle tissue that lines the inside of the shell.
- The oldest traces of pearls appear as rounded depressions on the mold of the bivalve megalodon from the upper Triassic of Hungary and are approximately 200 million years old.
- Pearls in fossil form appear in abundance from the Cretaceous period (Age of the Dinosaurs), 65-145 million years ago. These Cretaceous Pearls have been discovered in rocks in Euope, Japan and North America and the majority were produced by the bivalve mollusk of the Genus Inoceramus. The pearls measure up to 11cm and are usually dull yellow or gray.
Comments