Check List 19(4): 485-503, doi: 10.15560/19.4.485
New distributional records and rediscovery of three rare freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionidae) in the Sequatchie River, Tennessee
Gerald R. Dinkins‡, Barbara J. Dinkins§, Hugh D. Faust§, Robert T. Eldridge§, Brian M. Mize§‡ University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States of America§ Dinkins Biological Consulting, LLC, Powell, United States of America
Corresponding author: Gerald R. Dinkins ( gdinkins@utk.edu ) Academic editor: Igor Christo Miyahira © Gerald R. Dinkins, Barbara J. Dinkins, Hugh D. Faust, Robert T. Eldridge, Brian M. Mize. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Dinkins GR, Dinkins BJ, Faust HD, Eldridge RT, Mize BM (2023) New distributional records and rediscovery of three rare freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionidae) in the Sequatchie River, Tennessee. Check List 19(4): 485-503. https://doi.org/10.15560/19.4.485 |  |
Abstract
We present new drainage records for five freshwater mussels in the Sequatchie River, a tributary of the Tennessee River. We also report the rediscovery of Purple Lilliput, Toxolasma lividum Rafinesque, 1831, Tennessee Pigtoe, Pleuronaia barnesiana (Lea, 1838), and the federally endangered Slabside Pearlymussel, Pleuronaia dolabelloides (Lea, 1840), and we provide information on other mussel species found in our survey. In the Sequatchie River, T. lividum was last seen in 1957 and P. barnesiana and P. dolabelloides were last seen in 1980. The discovery of five new drainage records and rediscovery of three rare species highlights the need for additional mussel surveys in the Sequatchie River and the importance of surveys in conservation efforts.
Keywords
Conservation easements, endangered, endemic mussels, extirpated species