Appalachian monkey-face pearly mussel

Appalachian monkey-face pearly mussel
Quadrula sparsa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Unionoida
Family: Unionidae
Genus: Quadrula
Species: Q. sparsa
Binomial name
Quadrula sparsa
(Lea, 1841)

The Appalachian monkey-face pearly mussel or Appalachian monkeyface, scientific name Quadrula sparsa, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.

This species is endemic to western Virginia and eastern Tennessee in the Appalachia region, in the Southeastern United States.

It is critically endangered due to pollution of the rivers in which it lives. Being a detritivore, the mussel absorbs the pollutants which contaminate the river as it feeds.

Distribution

There are two to three populations remaining. In the Clinch River of Virginia there is a small, isolated population. A population in the upper Powell River in Tennessee is nearly gone. These occurrences may not be viable. All other occurrences have been extirpated.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Quadrula sparsa. The Nature Conservancy.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.