Critically Endangered
Ochlockonee moccasinshell
Medionidus simpsonianus
Ochlockonee moccasinshell is a bivalve in the family Unionidae (order Unionida) — Medionidus simpsonianus, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
Shell small, rather thin, somewhat inflated, elliptical, inequilateral, strongly plicate on the posterior slope. Epidermis dark yellow, smooth, polished, covered with dark green pencilled rays that tend to break into a net-work of angular lines covering the entire surface. Anterior end compressed, rounded, and slightly elevated above the line of the hinge superiorly. Posterior extremity obtusely rounded, the tip being nearly on the median line of the shell; posterior ridge somewhat angled; dorsal slope covered with strong sub-concentric, somewhat irregular ridges extending from the posterior ridge to the margin; basal margin regularly curved; hinge margin nearly straight, slightly angled between the cardinal and lateral teeth.
Length 36. Height 19, width 13 mm.
Range and habitat
The Ochlockonee moccasinshell is a freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. This species is endemic to the United States. Its natural habitat is rivers.
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
Ochlockonee moccasinshell 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 Ochlockonee moccasinshell, Wikidata item Q3016195. 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.
