The MUSSELp Projects

Unionoida cum Grano Salis ("freshwater mussels with a grain of salt") is our first attempt to pull together what is currently known of the species level diversity of these freshwater mollusks. These pages document our current estimate of freshwater mussel diversity, report how it is partitioned both taxonomically and geographically and list all currently recognized taxa.

Palearctic Freshwater Mussels by Daniel L. Graf. "The freshwater mussel assemblage of the Palearctic is not particularly diverse, relative to other areas of the world. ... The current consensus among most freshwater malacologists is that there are 45 Palearctic freshwater mussel species. That assessment is complicated by the use of the "Comparatory" or "Comparatorial" method in eastern Russia, which drastically inflates diversity estimates when compared to those estimated for Biological species."

Freshwater Mussels of Madagascar & the Mascarene Islands. Over the course of our worldwide collection-crawl and review of the literature on Afrotropical freshwater mussel diversity, we have encountered reports of freshwater mussels from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Of the nine separate species reported from those islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, we are confident on only one: Etheria elliptica. We have described a new genus for the another species, Germainaia geayi. The remaining seven are the result of errors and over-active imaginations.

Mashrua Al Mahar: Freshwater Bivalves of the Nile River, Egypt is an online collaboration between the MUSSEL Project and Dr. Kohar Garo of Cairo University, Egypt.

The MUSSELp PDFs Library. Occasionally, we acquire (or produce) pdfs that might be of general interest to the malacological community.

Wyoming Freshwater Mussels by Dr. Alan M. Cvancara. "Although perhaps surprising to some, one can reasonably say that Wyoming is still in the discovery phase in terms of its freshwater mussels..."

Montana Freshwater Mussels by David Stagliano. "With the completion of Montana’s Comprehensive Fish & Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CFWCS) for native species management in 2006..."

Freshwater Mussels of the Angola Region by Daniel L. Graf & Kevin S. Cummings. "The aquatic fauna of the Angola region in southwestern Africa, including the Cuanza (= Kwanza), Cunene, Okavango, upper Zambezi, Cassai (= Kasai) and lower Congo basins, is poorly known."