Email Print Share
February 10, 2011

Oyster Reef-Building

Oysters build their reefs--such as this one on the South Carolina coast--using a specialized cement, one that differs in composition from their shells, as well as from other marine organism adhesives.

This image accompanied NSF press release "Cement, the Glue That Holds Oyster Families Together."

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation; photos by Jonathan Wilker, Purdue University


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.1 MB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.