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A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold.
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Ribeirão Preto (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁibejˈɾɐ̃w ˈpɾetu]) is a municipality and a metropolitan area located in the northeastern region of São Paulo state, Brazil.
Ribeirão Preto is the eighth-largest municipality in the State with 650.9 km2. It has an estimated population of 674,534 in 2018 and a metropolitan area of 1,178,910. It is located 313 km (194 mi) from the city of São Paulo and 706 km (439 mi) from Brasília, the federal capital. Its mean altitude is 526.8 meters (1,728 feet) high. The city's average temperature throughout the year is 23 °C (73F), and the original predominant vegetation is the Atlantic forest.
The city was originated around 1856 as an agricultural region. Coffee was a primary income source until 1929 when it lost value compared with the industrial sector.