Endangered
Altamaha spinymussel
Elliptio spinosa
Altamaha spinymussel is a bivalve in the family Unionidae (order Unionida) — Elliptio spinosa, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The Altamaha spinymussel grows up to 11 cm (4.3 in) in length, and its shell is smooth and shiny. In young mussels, the outside of the shell is greenish yellow with green rays that darken over time to brown while the inside of the shell is pink or purple. The overall shape of the shell is triangular or diamond-like and has moderate inflation.
Each mussel has one to four or five spines on each valve that vary from 1–2.5 cm (0.39–0.98 in) in length, can be either crooked or straight and are in a parallel line from the shell's hinge to the wide outer edge of the mussel.
Range and habitat
Altamaha spinymussels are generally found in a range of coarse to fine sediments in sandbars, sloughs, and mid-channel islands. Their habitat is the coastal plains region of the Altamaha river and its tributaries. The tributaries include the Ohoopee, Ocmulgee, and Oconee rivers.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
For the first few months of life the spinymussel will feed through its foot. Neither the longevity nor the age at sexual maturity are known for the Altamaha spinymussel. (It is also currently unknown how many times they reproduce in a lifetime, offspring quality and quantity (e.g., number and size of offspring, sex ratio of offspring), age of dispersal, annual dormancy, and age-specific mortality rates.) Juvenile Altamaha spinymussels feed with their foot by pulling bacteria, algae, and decomposing organisms from the sediment on the river floor.
In crisis
The Altamaha spinymussel is on the Endangered Species Act because of many threats with the most prominent threats being habitat loss, decrease in water quality, shrinking range, small population size, and vulnerability to disturbances. The current population size of the Altamaha spinymussel is unknown. Since then, two of the four populations have become locally extinct.
This shows evidence of considerable declines in the population size. The Altamaha spinymussel is facing many distinct threats.
Altamaha spinymussel is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Altamaha spinymussel, Wikidata item Q3014990. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
