Venerids are generally thick-valved, equal-valved and isomyarian (that is, their
adductor muscles are of equal size). Three main hinge teeth are characteristic of the subclass
Heterodonta, to which this order belongs. Many species are active rather than sessile. However, they tend to be
filter feeders, feeding through paired
siphons, with a characteristic folded
gill structure adapted to that way of life. In 2002,
Gonzalo Giribet and
Ward Wheeler suggested that the orders
Myoida and Veneroida were not monophyletic. They have since been widely reorganised. ==Orders and families==