Pearl facts for kids
Pearls are amazing, shiny objects created by certain sea creatures called mollusks, like oysters and mussels. They are often small and can be white, but they also come in many soft colors, and even black! Pearls are usually round, but you can find them in different shapes too, like oval or half-round. People love to use pearls to make beautiful jewelry. If your birthday is in June, the pearl is your special birthstone!
How a Natural Pearl Forms
Imagine a tiny piece of something, like a grain of sand or a small parasite, gets inside an oyster. The oyster finds this annoying! To protect itself, the oyster starts covering the irritant with many layers of a special shiny material called nacre. This nacre is the same stuff that lines the inside of the oyster's shell. Over time, these layers build up, and a beautiful natural pearl is formed.
Pearls can be super tiny, like a peppercorn. But they can also be very big, sometimes as large as a human's fist! The biggest pearl ever found was called the Pearl of Lao-tze. It was discovered in 1934 and was about the size of a basketball!
Different Kinds of Pearls
There are two main types of pearls based on where they come from: saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls.
- Saltwater pearls grow inside oysters that live in the ocean.
- Freshwater pearls are found in mussels that live in rivers, lakes, or ponds.
Pearls are also grouped by how they are made:
- Natural pearls are very rare. They form completely by accident when an irritant gets into a mollusk on its own.
- Cultured pearls are made with a little help from people. To make a cultured pearl, a small bead or a tiny piece of another mollusk's tissue is carefully placed inside an oyster or mussel. The mollusk then starts covering this irritant with nacre, just like it would with a natural pearl. This way, many more pearls can be created!
Images for kids
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Georgian seed pearl gold ring
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A black pearl and a shell of the black-lipped pearl oyster. The iridescent colors originate from nacre layers.
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Electron microscopy image of a fractured surface of nacre
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Nuclei from Mikimoto Pearl Island, Toba, Japan
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Mary, Queen of Scots wearing a rope of black pearls
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A blister pearl, a half-sphere, formed flush against the shell of the pearl oyster.
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A shell of the Indian volute, Melo melo, surrounded by a number of pearls from this species
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Conch pearl pendant
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A 14th-century piece of clothing used by Kuwaiti divers searching for pearls in the Persian Gulf
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Catching of pearls, Bern Physiologus (9th century)
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A pearl being extracted from an akoya pearl oyster.
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A so-called "Boule de Genève" with a matching chatelaine covered in white pearls. Amsterdam Museum
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George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham wearing white pearls
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Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, owned one of the most famous collections of natural pearls. She is wearing a multi-strand choker and a rope of pearls
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Pearl earrings
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See also
In Spanish: Perla para niños
