Alasmidonta mccordi Athearn, 1964
Coosa elktoe
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Alasmidonta maccordi Athearn, 1964 [used by Clarke, 1985]; Alasmidonta (Alasmidens) mccordi (Athearn, 1964)
"Etymology Named for Athearn's colleague, John McCord of Cleveland, Tennessee"
(MolluscBase eds., 2025)
Conservation Status
Extinct (Bogan, 2000; Bogan et al., 2008; Régnier et al., 2009; Cummings & Cordeiro, 2011b; Cowie et al., 2017; Graf & Cummings, 2021, 2025)
Last (and only) record: 1956 (Cummings & Cordeiro, 2011b)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
"This species was known only from a single specimen collected from the Coosa River in St. Clair County, Alabama, prior to its impoundment"
(Cummings & Cordeiro, 2011b)
Distribution & Habitat
Coosa River, St. Clair County, Alabama, USA
Type locality: "Coosa River, Ten Island Shoals, just below old Lock 2 Dam, three and two-tenths miles south of Greenport, St. Clair County" (MolluscBase eds., 2025)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Known only from a single specimen collected from the Coosa River, within the St. Clair County boundary.
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Athearn, H. D. (1964). Three new unionids from Alabama and Florida and a note on Lampsilis jonesi. The Nautilus 77(4): 134-139.
Other references:
Anonymous. (2008). "Alabama Mussel List" on www.outdooralabama.com (Accessed 1 May, 2011).
Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). (1996). 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Bogan, Arthur E. (1993). Freshwater bivalve extinctions (Mollusca: Unionoida): A search for causes. American Zoologist 33(6): 599-609.
Bogan, A. E., Huang, Y., Raley, M. and Levine, J. F. (2008). Intraspecific phylogenetic relationships in the freshwater bivalve genus Alasmidonta (Bivalvia: Unionidae). North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina.
Burch, J. B. (1975). Freshwater Unionacean Clams (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) of North America. 204 pp.
Clarke, A. H. (1981). The tribe Alasmidontini (Unionidae: Anodontinae), Part I. Pegias, Alasmidonta, and Arcidens. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 326: iii + 101 pp.
Clarke, A. H. (1985). The tribe Alasmidontini (Unionidae: Anodontinae). Part II: Lasmigona and Simpsonaias. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 399: 1-75.
Cowie, Robert H., Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît, and Bouchet, Philippe. (2017). Measuring the Sixth Extinction: what do mollusks tell us? The Nautilus 131(1): 3-41.
Cummings, K. and Cordeiro, J. (2011a). Alasmidonta mccordi. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on 22 April 2012.
Cummings, K. and Cordeiro, J. (2011b). Alasmidonta mccordi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: e.T780A13078346. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T780A13078346.en. Accessed on 02 July 2022.
Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2007). Review of the systematics and global diversity of freshwater mussel species (Bivalvia: Unionoida). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73(4): 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eym029
Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2021). A ‘big data’ approach to global freshwater mussel diversity (Bivalvia: Unionoida), with an updated checklist of genera and species. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87(1): eyaa034 (36 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyaa034
Graf, Daniel L. and Cummings, Kevin S. (2025). The Freshwater Mussels (Unionoida) of the World (and other less consequential bivalves). MUSSEL Project Web Site, https://www.mussel-project.net/. Accessed 25 June 2025.
Haag, Wendell R. (2009). Past and future patterns of freshwater mussel extinctions in North America during the Holocene, pp. 107-128. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Hilton-Taylor, Craig. (2000). 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Hopper, G. W., Bucholz, J. R., DuBose, T. P., Fogelman, K. J., Keogh, S. M. et al. (2023). A trait dataset for freshwater mussels of the United States of America. Scientific Data 10. 745 (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02635-9
Mirarchi, R. E. (2004). Alabama Wildlife. Volume One: A Checklist of Vertebrates and Selected Invertebrates: Aquatic Mollusks, Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 209 pp.
Mirarchi, R. E., Garner, J. T., Mettee, M. F. and O'Neil, P. E. (2004). Imperilled Aquatic Molluscs and Fishes. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Alasmidonta mccordi Athearn, 1964. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=857223 on 2025-06-25
Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît and Bouchet, Philippe. (2009). Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions. Conservation Biology 23(5): 1214-1221. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01245.x [Appendix S1-S2]
Turgeon, D. D., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Emerson, W. K., Lyons, W. G. et al. (1988). Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks. American Fisheries Society Special Publication (16). 277 pp.
Turgeon, D. D., Quinn, J. F., Jr., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Hochberg, F. G., Lyons, W. G., Mikkelsen, P. M., Neves, R. J., Roper, C. F. E., Rosenberg, G., Roth, B., Scheltema, A., Thompson, F. G., Vecchione, M. and Williams, J. D. (1998). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks. 2nd Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 26, Bethesda, Maryland: 526 pp.
Whelan, N. V., Johnson, N. A., Williams, A. S., Perkins, M. A., Beaver, C. E. and Mays, J. W. (2023). Hidden in the hills: phylogeny of the freshwater mussel genus Alasmidonta (Bivalvia: Unionidae) and description of a new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 198(2): 650-676. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac106
Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E., Butler, Robert S., Cummings, Kevin S., Garner, Jeffrey T., Harris, John L., Johnson, Nathan A. and Watters, G. Thomas. (2017). A revised list of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada. Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation 20: 33-58.
Williams, James D., Bogan, Arthur E. and Garner, Jeffrey T. (2008). Freshwater mussels of Alabama and the Mobile Basin in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. xv + 908 pp.
Williams, James D., Warren, M. L., Cummings, K. S., Harris, J. L. and Neves, R. J. (1993). Conservation status of freshwater mussels of the United States and Canada. Fisheries 18(9): 6-22.
Williams, James D., Wisniewski, Jason M. and Dinkins, Gerald R. (2022). Range extension and review of the conservation status of the freshwater mussel Alasmidonta mccordi Athearn, 1964 (Bivalvia, Unionidae) in the Coosa River drainage of Alabama and Georgia. Check List 18(2): 391-398. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.2.391
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