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Dreissena
Identification
Caption
Lampsilis siliquoidea with attached zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha), Lake St. Clair, Michigan. The introduction of zebra mussels to North America is one of the great ecological disasters of our time. Their initial entry was from ship ballast emptied into Lake St. Clair, Michigan. They rapidly spread throughout much of the Great Lakes, then into smaller inland lakes, and most recently into the Mississippi River system. The native mussels in Lake St. Clair are not reported to be completely eliminated. The part of the Lampsilis covered in the picture is that part of the animal exposed above the substrate. Like most of our freshwater mussels, Lampsilis stays buried with only enough of the posterior shell exposed to allow the incurrent and excurrent siphons to operate. The Lampsilis shown here is a female, as shown by the posterior bulge in its shell.
- Subject
- Live Animal
- Type
- Photo
Contributors
John B. Burch (photographer; copyright holder), Mollusk Division, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Classification
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Class Bivalvia
- Order Veneroida
- Family Dreissenidae
- Genus Dreissena
Related Taxa
- Species Dreissena polymorpha
To cite this page: Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2013. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed at http://animaldiversity.org.
Disclaimer: The Animal Diversity Web is an educational resource written largely by and for college students. ADW doesn't cover all species in the world, nor does it include all the latest scientific information about organisms we describe. Though we edit our accounts for accuracy, we cannot guarantee all information in those accounts. While ADW staff and contributors provide references to books and websites that we believe are reputable, we cannot necessarily endorse the contents of references beyond our control.
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE-0633095 and DRL-0628151.
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