This section is a work in progress in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. Dr. Estevão Rosim Fachini has analyzed the fibers from three species of pen clams, Pinna nobilis, Atrina rigida, and Atrina pectinata, and he has compared each sample to silk and other fibers. He will be releasing a scientific paper detailing this analysis in the hopes that it will inform collecting institutions as they analyze their own collections and suspected byssus artifacts.
An exploration of traditional Italian craft and the search for American Byssus