---
title: "Northern Quahog"
description: "Mercenaria mercenaria — Inne zwierzęta. The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) 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."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pl/animal/northern-quahog
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Northern Quahog

> Mercenaria mercenaria — Inne zwierzęta. The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) 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.

- Scientific name: *Mercenaria mercenaria*
- Category: `other` (Inne zwierzęta)
- Habitats: `sea` (Morze i wybrzeże)
- iNaturalist observations: 7315
- Wikidata: [Q2279087](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2279087)
- iNaturalist taxon: [125758](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/125758)

## Names

- en: Northern Quahog
- de: Nördliche Quahog-Muschel
- es: Almeja dura
- fr: Palourde américaine
- nl: Amerikaanse venusschelp

## Countries with the most observations

US (5098), CA (482), GB (62), CN (4), FR (3)

## Summary

The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) 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.
The "ocean quahog" is a different species, Arctica islandica, which, although superficially similar…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_clam

## Photo

![Northern Quahog](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/northern-quahog/medium.jpg)

Photo: Dan Horowitz · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101883175

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/northern-quahog?lang=pl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).