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Black Sandshell From The Tennessee River


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#1 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 31 October 2007 - 12:12 PM

In an earlier thread there was some discussion on whether a shell was a black sandshell, Ligumia recta, or not. I was part of a stream survey yesterday in a creek in Marshall County, AL, that runs directly into the Tennessee below Guntersville dam. Much of the creek is a mudhole with few species and individuals, mostly floaters, yellow sandshells and heelsplitters. But at the mouth of the creek the diversity shot up and we found a single black sandshell. The picture is below. This stretch of the Tennessee can have high flow, and this shell shows the scars of that. A quarter is in the picture for scale. And the mussel was quickly returned to the river, alive. The species has become increasingly uncommon in the middle Tennessee.
Attached File  BeanRock_BlackSandShell.JPG   301.77KB   1 downloads

#2 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 31 October 2007 - 08:09 PM

As an homage to the Catfish Alliance's bridge-to-bridge endurance test, below is a photo of our creek survey yesterday in Bean Rock Creek, Alabama, not far from the Tennessee River. Our divers and helpers are working their way downstream using the yellow wooden boat as a supply carrier. The boat was in at least a foot of water the whole way down(!).
Attached File  BeanRock_MidPoint.jpg   390.33KB   0 downloads

#3 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 01 November 2007 - 03:25 PM

Nice looking crick, Bruce!

#4 Guest_fuzzyletters_*

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Posted 01 November 2007 - 11:42 PM

Nice looking crick, Bruce!


Yeah... I could use some of that wood in my tanks

#5 Guest_diburning_*

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Posted 10 November 2007 - 12:24 PM

not sure about the exact id, but it does look like a ligumia species.

#6 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 10 November 2007 - 03:58 PM

Yeah, you're right, and since there's only one Ligumia in this stretch of the Tennessee it's gotta be recta. The only other local unionid with a similar shell morphology is the spike, Elliptio dilatata.

#7 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 10 November 2007 - 04:15 PM

It is.

#8 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 15 November 2007 - 10:26 PM

I've been looking for this! It's a relatively young, pristine black sandshell (Ligumia recta) from the lower French Broad River (8 RM upstream of the Tennessee River origin in Knoxville)

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#9 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 15 November 2007 - 11:40 PM

Pristine is the word, the ones we find in the Tennessee always look pretty beat up.

#10 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 16 November 2007 - 08:23 AM

The most amazing thing about it's condition is mussels in the French Broad taking a BEATING. I think I showed Todd some valves before and I can throw some pictures up as examples, but these guys are subjected to 20,000 CFS flows on a daily basis. Your typicle Q. pustulosa has every pustule bored out, umbos down to the mantle almost. They essentialy get sandblasted every day. The bed load movement in that river is astonishing. Really thick shelled species like A. plicata and E. crassidens are both always worn down. Bruce's example would be a 'good' French Broad mussel.




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