---
title: Lazarus Jewel Box (Chama lazarus)
scientific_name: Chama lazarus
common_name: Lazarus Jewel Box
taxon: Clams
published: 2026-08-11T07:40:36.437Z
updated: 2026-08-11T08:59:21.753Z
tags: Lazarus Jewel Box, Chama lazarus, Clams, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/clams/lazarus-jewel-box
---

# Lazarus Jewel Box (*Chama lazarus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Clams (*Bivalvia*)
- **Size:** up to 14 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Cemented to rock and dead coral, often under ledges
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- lower valve cemented to rock, upper valve acting as a lid
- outer surface drawn out into leaf-like frills and plates
- frills usually crusted with algae and small growth
- shell to 14 cm

A jewel box shell glued to the rock by its lower valve, the upper one working as a lid, and the whole outer surface drawn out into leaf-like frills and plates up to 14 cm (5.5 in) across. Those frills are almost always crusted with coralline algae and small encrusting life, so the animal reads as a lumpy patch of reef until it closes.

Cementing is unusual among bivalves and it changes the geometry of the animal: the two valves stop being mirror images, one becoming a deep cup and the other a flatter cover. Larvae settle, attach and are committed. Everything after that is growth in place, filtering water through the narrow gape.

The common name is old and comes from the shell trade, where these were prized for exactly the frilly ornament that makes them hard to see alive. Empty valves are collected far more often than living animals are noticed, which says more about how well the camouflage works than about how rare they are.

## Also known as

- **English:** Lazarus jewel box, Mollusca
- **German:** Stachelige Gienmuschel, Lazarusklappe, Stachelige Hufmuschel, Lazarus-Schmuckkästchen
- **Japanese:** ヒレインコ
- **Russian:** Хама Лазаря

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chama damaecornis* Lamarck, 1819
- *Chama lazarus pannosus* [Lightfoot], 1786

## Range

Indian Ocean, Republic of Mauritius, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/clams/lazarus-jewel-box)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*