Abra splendens was a small clam that lived within the soft muddy seabed of the London Clay sea. It is interpreted as an infaunal deposit feeder, so rather than waiting for food to drift past, it gathered organic-rich material from the sediment surface while remaining protected beneath the seabed.

Living Abra use long siphons to reach the sediment-water interface while the shell remains buried. A similar way of life is a reasonable model for A. splendens: a small, mobile bivalve recycling fine organic matter in the mud and forming part of the food supply for larger predatory molluscs and fish.