If Disco is dead, no one told the Ctenoides ales clam, which uses an underwater light show to ward off potential predators.

Dubbed the disco clam, C. ales reflects light using spherical silica objects on their lips that also serves to attract their next meal. According to Live Science, authors of a new study observed the clams, which measure about 2.8 inches in length, in an aquarium with Styrofoam figures to substitute for predators/

"It was on that trip I first saw the disco clam, and immediately fell in love," study lead author Lindsey Dougherty, a doctoral candidate of marine biology at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a press release. "In this case, the false predator was just a styrofoam lid. But it turns out a styrofoam lid is indeed pretty scary to the clams, because their flash rate almost doubled from just under 2 Hz to just under 4 Hz.

"Doing an experiment is one thing, but doing an experiment underwater, even a simple one, is exponentially more difficult," she said. "Coral reefs are fragile environments; you have to be very conscious of what you are doing."

The researchers also hypothesized that the disco clams use their light show to attract mates. They plan to further their work by eventually observing these creatures in Indonesia, in their natural habitat.

"When most people imagine clams, they imagine the things that make clam chowder," Dougherty said. "These clams are very different," Dougherty told Live Science. "They're reef-dwelling, they have bright-red tentacles, they have gills that stick out, they live in little crevasses [and] they are the only species of clam that flashes.

"If you're flashing and saying, 'I'm distasteful; don't eat me,' that's one thing, but you have to sort of back it up."