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Alasmidonta robusta Clarke, 1981:81

Carolina elktoe

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Alasmidonta (Decurambis) robusta Clarke, 1981

 

See Graf & Cummings (2025) for a more complete taxonomic history.

 

Conservation Status

Extinct (Bogan, 2000b; Régnier et al., 2009; Cowie et al., 2017; Graf & Cummings, 2021, 2025; NatureServe, 2025)

Last record: 6 May 1882 or before [by implication] (Clarke, 1981)

IUCN RedList status: Extinct

 

Only known from the type collection of five dried shells. A shell from Poison Fork is not definitely attributable to the species:

"Alasmidonta robusta Clarke, 1981, was considered extinct until North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) biologists recently identified a possible specimen in Poison Fork, Montgomery County (J. Alderman, personal communication)."

(Bogan et al., 2008:8)

"A specimen found by John Alderman (29 August 2002) in Poison Fork, Montgomery County is most likely not this species (Harry LeGrand, pers. comm. 2013)."

(NatureServe, 2025)

 

Distribution & Habitat

Long Creek, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA

 

Biology & Ecology

 

 

Hypodigm

Only known from the original collection of five dried shells.

 

Media

 

 

References

Original scientific description:

Clarke, A. H. (1981). The tribe Alasmidontini (Unionidae: Anodontinae), Part I. Pegias, Alasmidonta, and Arcidens. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. No. 326. iii + 101 pp.

 

Other references:

Adams, W. F., Alderman, J. M., Biggins, R. G., Gerberich, A. G., Keferl, E. P., Porter, H. J. and van Davender, A. S. (eds.). (1990). A report on the conservation status of North Carolina's freshwater and terrestrial molluscan fauna. Report to NCWRC by Scientific Council on Freshwater and Terrestrial Mollusks. 246 pp.

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). (1996). 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. pp. 378. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Bogan, A. E. (1993). Freshwater bivalve extinctions (Mollusca: Unionoida): A search for causes. American Zoologist 33: 599-609.

Bogan, A. E (2000a). Alasmidonta robusta. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 06 July 2011.

Bogan, A. E. (Mollusc Specialist Group). (2000b). Alasmidonta robusta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2000: e.T777A13078018. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T777A13078018.en. Accessed on 02 July 2022.

Bogan, A. E. (2002). Workbook and key to the freshwater bivalves of North Carolina. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: Raleigh, North Carolina. 101 pp.

Bogan, A. E. and Alderman, J. M. (2004). Workbook and key to the freshwater bivalves of South Carolina. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: Raleigh, North Carolina. 64 pp.

Bogan, Arthur E., Huang, Yanyan, Raley, Morgan and Levine, Jay F. (2008). Final Report: Intraspecific phylogenetic relationships in the freshwater bivalve genus Alasmidonta (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Submitted To: North Carolina Department of Transportation.

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.

FMCS (Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society). (2023). The 2023 checklist of freshwater bivalves (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada. Considered and approved by the Bivalve Names Subcommittee October 2023. Online: https://molluskconservation.org/MServices_Names-Bivalves.html

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 26 June 2025.

Groombridge, B. (ed.). (1994). 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Hilton-Taylor, C. (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

IUCN. (1990). IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Johnson, R. I. (1997). Comments on "the final report" of a massive search for Lasmigona decorata (Lea, 1852) and Alasmidonta robusta Clarke, 1981 (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from the Carolinas. Occasional Papers on Mollusks 5(71): 371-378.

Keferl, E. P. and Shelley, R. M. (1988). The final report on a status survey of the Carolina heelsplitter, Lasmigona decorata and the Carolina elktoe, Alasmidonta robusta. Report prepared for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and North Carolina State Museum of Natural Science. 27 pp. + Appendices.

LeGrand, H. E., Jr., Hall, S. P., McRae, S. E. and Finnegan, J. T. (2006). Natural Heritage Program List of the Rare Animal Species of North Carolina. North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina. 104 pp.

MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Alasmidonta robusta A. H. Clarke, 1981. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=857224 on 2025-06-26

NatureServe. (2025). Alasmidonta robusta: Carolina Elktoe. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed 26 June 2025]

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., Warren, M. L., Jr., 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.

https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6863/alasmidonta-robusta-carolina-elktoe

 

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