mussel
Freshwater mussels, most of which belong to families the order Unionoida, are not closely related to the marine species. They are chiefly of two kinds: the large, dark-shelled burrowing mussels, a source of pearls and of mother-of-pearl; and the tinyfingernail clams
found on the bottoms of clear pools and brooks. Freshwater mussels of the family Unionidae, sometimes called clams, pass through a parasitic larval state, living on the fins, gills, and bodies of fishes.
The thumbnail-sized zebra mussel,Dreissena polymorpha,is a small freshwater mussel native to Europe that was introduced in the 1980s into the Great Lakes. Lacking natural predators, it has proliferated and spread widely in North America, clogging intake pipes at water and power facilities and disrupting native ecosystems. The larger quagga mussel,D. rostriformis bugensis,also native to Europe, was first found in the Great Lakes in 1989 and has largely supplanted the zebra mussel there. Quagga populations are also found in the Colorado and upper Missisippi river basins and in associated waterways. Zebra and quagga mussels are more closely related to the trueclamsandcocklesthan other mussels.
Mussels are classified in the phylumMollusca, class Pelecypoda or Bivalvia.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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