Spondylus

Spondylus is a genus of bivalve molluscs, the only genus in the family Spondylidae, commonly known as spiny oysters or thorny oysters although they are not true oysters but are related to scallops. The species vary a great deal in appearance. They cement themselves to rocks, and their two shell halves join with a ball-and-socket hinge. In Neolithic Europe the shells were harvested in the Aegean Sea and carried far inland to be worked into bracelets and belt buckles. In pre-Columbian America, Spondylus crassisquama, found off the coast of Colombia and Ecuador, was important to Andean peoples as both an offering to the fertility goddess Pachamama and as currency. The Moche of ancient Peru regarded the sea and its animals as sacred and showed Spondylus in effigy pots. To the Aztecs the shell was a gift from the deities, linked to symbols such as a fertility goddess, a moon goddess, a sun god and the mountain spirits.