KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette The Megalomus clam from the Devonian Period, 380 million years old ,found in Tioga County. The clam is on display at Rocks Off at 354 Pine Street in Williamsport.

Anyone can get or make fried clams or clams and spaghetti.

Not everyone can walk in the woods and find a giant, petrified clam.

That’s what happened to Laura Roan recently.

Roan said she was walking with her friend in the woods near French Lick Run, a hobby she has to find artifacts, such as fish fossils, arrow heads and the like.

One sunny day in late August, Roan said she and her friend were walking and saw what appeared to be a giant tortoise or turtle shell sticking up in the mud.

Upon closer inspection, the darn thing resembled a clam — a giant one.

“We thought it was a turtle,” she said of the discovery which led to further inspection.

On the underside of the clam, there was a softer kind of rock, which could be petrified muscle, she said.

The shape of the mysterious monster was certainly that of a clam, as one would see walking along the ocean beach, she said, but it was so heavy it was unable to be moved.

“We think it weighs 500 pounds,” she said. “It took four men to move it using a refrigerator cart,” Roan said, adding there was a video of the transferral of the clam from the woods to the cart to a truck.

The discovery was indeed a clam. It has since been identified by a geologist as a megalumus clam, she said.

It’s a creature, believed to be 380 million years old and living in the time of Earth’s history known as the Devonian Period, a part of the Paleozoic era, otherwise known as the Age of Fishes.

Another fascinating point is that area of the woods, where the clam was found, has a sculpture of a rock with tool marks on it of a face and teeth and eyes, Roan said.

Discoveries of fossilized fish have been found inside a rock that was cracked open and a petrified duckling, too, near where the clam was found, she said.

Giant clams are found in the Pacific Ocean and in Malaysia but if there are in Pennsylvania, it might be somewhat different, according to a Google Earth Science search.

The clam has a new home. Pine Street in Williamsport. It is on display at the Rocks Off Shop.

Since the discovery, the geology department personnel at Lycoming College have been notified, Roan said.

The store has different hours, because of COVID-19, but the clam is prominently displayed in the front of the shop.