What is a Freshwater Mussel?
Freshwater mussels are bivalved mollusks (Phylum Mollusca, Class Bivalvia) distantly related to ocean-dwelling clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops. Mussels evolved from a marine bivalve ancestor during the Paleozoic era, more than 245 million years ago. Fossil shells indicate that mussels coexisted with dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era (Age of Dinosaurs) from 65-245 million years ago. Today there are more than 800 species of freshwater mussels and they live on every continent except Antarctica. Illustration: Exterior photo of butterfly mussel (Ellipsaria lineolata). What Do Mussels Look Like? Illustration: Drawing of mussel soft tissues (after Burch 1973:7) Inner Bodies Mussels have soft inner bodies and hard outer shells. The soft tissues include a large muscular foot used for locomotion, an enveloping mantle that secretes the shell, anterior and posterior adductor muscles that enable to the animal to close its shells, labial palps that move food particles to the mouth, and two pai
