Hi, Gang!

Can someone please describe a juvenile Mercenaria mercenaria for me?   I have been having trouble with small shells (say, perhaps the lagest of which would be an inch and
three quarters in length), which are very similar to the mercenaria shell, but the ridges are much more pronounced, and many of them have a colored pattern.   Could this be the shell that loses the color and ridges as it gets bigger (although I have one which is much bigger than the aforementioned "babies," which retains both the pattern and ridges.

Otherwise, the shells are almost identical, i.e., the hinge, the palial simus, the escutcheon, and the lunule.

I had previously identified some of these as Ventricolia rigidia
(I think), but am really wondering if I am not look at young Mercearias.

Confused by the Venerid clams,
Linda