Eli5: How/ why do oysters make pearls?
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Oysters and clams and mussels have shells, but they don’t really have skin. So if a grain of sand or a rock or something rough or sharp gets inside the shell, it’s in there with what are basically the clam’s organs. It scrape and scuff and cut them constantly.
And there’s no good way for the clam to spit out the sand, either. So they grow a kind-of-soft layer on the inside of their shell, called nacre (nay-cur) or mother-of-pearl (see where this is going?). That layer rubs off *onto the rock,* filling in its cracks and building up into a smooth surface that doesn’t scratch and grind anymore. And that’s a pearl.
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