#4617 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs
Atlantic Jackknife
🇳🇱 Amerikaanse zwaardschede ·Ensis leei
📍 The Hague, South Holland, NL
📍 Strand van Burgh-Haamstede, Haamstede, Zeeland, NL
📍 South Holland, NL
📍 Noordwijk, Nederland
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © dallenstein · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © dallenstein · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Stephen James McWilliam · CC0
- 4. © Stephen James McWilliam · CC0
- 5. © Ulf Teghammar · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Susan Marley · CC BY 4.0
- 7. The Hague, South Holland, NL:© Mark · CC BY 4.0
- 8. Strand van Burgh-Haamstede, Haamstede, Zeeland, NL:© daxkifa · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. South Holland, NL:© mothpuppy · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. Noordwijk, Nederland:© Michel Langeveld · CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The Atlantic jackknife clam , Ensis leei , also known as the bamboo clam , American jackknife clam or razor clam , is a large edible marine bivalve mollusc found on the North American Atlantic coast, from Canada to South Carolina. The species has also been introduced to Europe at the end of the 70's and is already extremely abundant there in suitable habitats. The name "razor clam" is also used to refer to different species such as the Pacific...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 86 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #49 most seen of the snails, slugs & other molluscs in NL.
- 7,038 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Timothy Abbott Conrad in 1843 (183 years ago).
- Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.
fact sheet
- English
- Atlantic Jackknife
- Nederlands
- Amerikaanse zwaardschede
- scientific name
- Ensis leei
- class
- Bivalvia
- order
- Adapedonta
- family
- Pharidae
- in NL
- introduced
- sightings in NL
- 86
- sightings in Europe
- 326
- sightings worldwide
- 7,038
- GBIF records in NL
- 6,383
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1843 by Timothy Abbott Conrad
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 765132, Wikidata Q378093, GBIF 2287249, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.