This footage of sushi twitching on a plate has seriously creeped people out

Poor little fella.

Footage of some clam sushi twitching on a man's plate has recently gone viral on Twitter, prompting the question whether it is in fact still alive.

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People were predictably unnerved by the restless mollusc.

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Mashable asked marine biologist Callum Roberts whether the clam was in fact still alive, or just showing signs that could be misinterpreted as life.

"Clams have very simple nervous systems, and rather than a brain have three sets of paired ganglia distributed through the body, which coordinate the activities of the animal," he said. "Clearly, in this case, some of these are still intact and functional."

So for a given definition of "life" in organisms so vastly different from ourselves, this clam is very much still alive.

Before you get too grossed out or indignant, remember that consuming live seafood is not that uncommon a phenomenon: oysters are eaten alive all over the world, slurped right out of the shell. Roberts told us that in preparing clams for sushi the animals are "generally just scooped out of the shell."

Rest in peace little clam.