This must be rarest ingredient ever.

Do they just spawn in dungeons or can we loot this from shell fish?

There are no pearls in these shellfish. You can find them on people and in dungeons. They are extremely rare, thats why I love them and keep any I find which has been one so far lol.

I wonder if it's a mistake that you never find pearls in oysters like you could in Oblivion.

I have about 30 pearls on one toon or the other. They're an "ingredient" - which I find silly (well, probably only because I dislike alchemy). I think they should be able to be jewelcrafted into something SPECTACULAR....

Pretty sure it's an error and they were intended to be found inside clams (Which is where they come from in real life, as well as Oblivion)

Clams are used by man to make pearls, while true any sort of clam, mollusk, oyster what have you, can make pearls, they are rare in 'wild' situations.

There are still "wild" pearls available in the high-end market in the "real world". The fact that humans have figured out how to trick the oysters doesn't mean that some oysters have given up their own "pearl trade"....

No but an oyster just opening up and allowing something to be stuck in there naturally isn't going to happen as frequently is all im saying, so they are a true natural rarity in skyrim just like they would be so more in the wild in real life, cause it would be left to chance. Clams especially have a rarer occurence to have 'natural' pearls over other shellfish like that. I would like to see the very odd clam with meat and a pearl in it once in awhile in game though, I might go diving a bit more.

Argonians might become rich in Skyrim.

pearls are one the rarest ingredients in the game- far rarer than deadra hearts. There are only 1-2 assured locations in the game and the rest must be found from randomly from mages/apothecary satchels.

I have a strange fetish with collecting ingredients even if i never use them and such rare ingredients seriously irk me.