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Glite Dictionary
🧠 Brain's outer layer ⛪ A church band 🧥 A Roman cloak 🐚 A shell layer
pallium

pallium

9.9
A soft body layer on animals with shells that makes the shell
  • noun
  • /ˈpæl.i.əm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : manto
  • The pallium is responsible for secreting the calcium carbonate that forms a clam's shell.

Examples

  • Damage to the pallium can impair a mollusk's ability to repair its protective shell.

  • In brachiopods, the pallium secretes the shell material.

  • Researchers studied how the pallium reacts to changes in environmental acidity.

  • The pallium of the mollusk is crucial for shell formation.

  • The pallium helps mollusks maintain their shell structure by secreting necessary materials.

  • Without a healthy pallium, a mollusk cannot effectively protect itself with its shell.

  • In brachiopods, the pallium plays a vital role in producing the material for their protective shells.

Synonyms

mantle
vspallium
  • Specialized
24 8.5

A soft layer of body tissue in animals like snails that makes their shell

is the same structure but described specifically as an epidermal protective layer

Surface Forms

pallium singular
pallia plural

Etymology

The word pallium comes from the Latin pallium 'cloak' and in zoology it names the soft skin that 'cloaks' a mollusk and makes its shell. That's why the animal's pallium is the protective layer that forms the shell.