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The Tahitian pearl (or black pearl) is an organic gem formed from the black lip oyster (Pinctada margaritifera). [1] These pearls derive their name from the fact that they are primarily cultivated around the islands of French Polynesia , around Tahiti .
Pinctada margaritifera, commonly known as the black-lip pearl oyster, is a species of pearl oyster, a saltwater mollusk, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae. This species is common in the Indo-Pacific within tropical coral reefs. The ability of P. margaritifera to produce pearls means that the species is a valuable resource to humans.
Black South Sea pearls, or Tahitian pearls come from the black-lip oyster; gold and silver South Sea pearls from the gold-lip and silver-lip oysters; and Akoya cultured pearls from Pinctada fucata martensii, the Akoya pearl oyster. Pearls are also obtained in commercial quantities from some species of the closely related winged oyster genus Pteria.
A black pearl and a shell of the black-lipped pearl oyster. The iridescent colors originate from nacre layers. All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but the great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones.
Pearls were first gathered in Western Australia by Aboriginal Australians. [5] The European pearling industry began in the 1850s at Shark Bay where pearls (called the 'Oriental, or Golden' Pearl) were found in the Pinctada albina oyster in relatively large numbers.
After seeing a news story about a similar find being valuable, Serino dug up the stone, learning that the rock is really a six-carat rare lavender pearl worth about $15,000.
The Pearl of Lao Tzu for a long time thought to be the largest pearl, but claims about its size and much of its history were found to be fabricated by a conman by the name of Victor Barbish. [2] Other pearls like the Centaur Pearl, most likely the largest gem pearl at 856.58 carats (171.316 g), have just recently emerged from private ...
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