Sagittunio nasutus
Species of bivalve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sagittunio nasutus, the eastern pondmussel, is a species of freshwater mussel in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.[3]
| Sagittunio nasutus | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Unionida |
| Family: | Unionidae |
| Subfamily: | Ambleminae |
| Tribe: | Lampsilini |
| Genus: | Sagittunio |
| Species: | S. nasutus |
| Binomial name | |
| Sagittunio nasutus (Say, 1817) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
This species is native to the eastern United States and Ontario, Canada.[1] In Canada, the eastern pondmussel has been adversely affected by zebra mussels, which were introduced near the end of the 1980s.[4] Originally assessed as endangered due to the existence of only two known Canadian populations,[4] the eastern pondmussel was placed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act in 2013.[5] However, a reassessment by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 2017 identified seventeen additional subpopulations,[6] and the eastern pondmussel was relisted as "special concern" in August 2019.[5] The population of the lower Great Lakes has limited diversity in certain mitochondrial genetic markers compared to those of the eastern seaboard's population, evidence of a founder effect and suggestive of a post-glacial arrival of Atlantic coast mussels to the Great Lakes by a restricted route.[6]: 7 [7] The Walpole Island First Nation protects a population of eastern pondmussels residing in their tribal waters within the delta of Lake St. Clair.[4]: 12
Like many Unionoid mussels, female eastern pondmussels display a lure to attract their fish hosts (see video, right).
