Overview
The Tennessee clubshell is a medium-sized freshwater mussel in the Unionidae family, commonly known as pearly mussels. The species is found in Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, and was once common in the Cumberland and Tennessee River systems.
Like other freshwater mussels, the Tennessee clubshell is at risk from habitat degradation in streams and the surrounding watershed, barriers to aquatic connectivity, contaminants, and diseases. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with partners to support research, habitat restoration, propagation, and other actions that will help restore native freshwater mussel species.
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Characteristics
Physical Characteristics
The Tennessee clubshell may be shades of brown, green, or yellow, with vertical streaks of green on the outside, and a shimmery white inside.
Geography
This mussel is endemic to the Cumberland and Tennessee river systems, two major tributaries of the Ohio River, USA. In the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tennessee, it occurs only downstream of Cumberland Falls. In the Tennessee drainage, it is known from headwaters in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee downstream to Muscle Shoals, northwestern Alabama. A disjunct population inhabits the Duck River in central Tennessee. The only extant Alabama population exists in the Paint Rock River system, a small tributary of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama, with some tributaries also draining a portion of south-central Tennessee. Many former populations of this species are now extinct.
Timeline
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