Critically Endangered
Fanshell
Cyprogenia stegaria
Fanshell is a bivalve in the family Unionidae (order Unionida) — Cyprogenia stegaria, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The Fanshell is a aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae. This clam is known to be reproducing in the Clinch River in Tennessee and Virginia, and the Green and Licking Rivers in Kentucky.
Range and habitat
This clam is native to the United States, where breeding populations remain in only three rivers. There may be a small reproducing population in the Tennessee River. This species is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Freshwater mussels bury in the bed and live for decades if the river still runs and the host fish still spawn.
In crisis
There also may be some small populations remaining in several states, but these are not reproducing.
Fanshell is Critically 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 Fanshell, Wikidata item Q3016454. 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.
