Epioblasma sampsonii I. Lea, 1862
Sampson's naiad, Sampson's pearly mussel, Sampson's riffleshell, Wabashriffleshell
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Dysnomia sampsoni I. Lea, 1862
Conservation Status
Extinct (Bogan, 2000b; Régnier et al., 2009; Cowie et al., 2017; Graf & Cummings, 2021, 2025)
Last record: pre-1950 (Bogan, 2000b)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
Distribution
Illinois, Indiana & Kentucky, USA
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
4 specimens are in the Illinois Natural History Survey mollusc [url=]collection[/url]:
INHS 5677
INHS 5728
INHS 5923
INHS 6359
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Lea, Isaac. (1862). Descriptions of eleven new species of the genus Unio from the United States. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 13: 391-393. [after 31 December 1861; before 31 March 1862]
Other references:
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, Arthur E. (2000a). Epioblasma sampsonii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 22 April 2012.
Bogan, Arthur E. (Mollusc Specialist Group). (2000b). Epioblasma sampsonii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2000: e.T7881A12861457. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T7881A12861457.en. Accessed on 19 June 2022.
Burch, J. B. (1975). Freshwater unionacean clams (Mollusca: Pelecypoda) of North America. Malacological Publications: Hamburg, Michigan. 204 pp.
Cicerello, R. R. and Schuster, G. A. (2003). A guide to the freshwater mussels of Kentucky. Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission Scientific and Technical Series 7: 1-62.
Clarke, A. H. (1983). The distribution and relative abundance of Lithasia pinguis (Lea), Pleurobema plenum (Lea), Villosa trabalis (Conrad), and Epioblasma sampsoni (Lea). American Malacological Bulletin, 1: 27-30.
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, Kevin S. and Mayer, C. A. (1992). Field Guide to Freshwater Mussels of the Midwest (Illinois Natural History Survey Manual Vol. 5. Champaign, IL: Illinois Natural History Survey. 194 pp.
Cummings, K.S. and C.A. Mayer. 1997. Distributional checklist and status of Illinois freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Unionacea). Pages 129-145 in: K.S. Cummings, A.C. Buchanan, C.A. Mayer, and T.J. Naimo (eds.) Conservation and management of freshwater mussels II: initiatives for the future. Proceedings of a UMRCC Symposium, October 1995, St. Louis, Missouri. Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, Rock Island, Illinois.
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 4 July 2025.
Groombridge, B. (ed.). (1994). 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
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.
IUCN. (1990). IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Epioblasma sampsonii (I. Lea, 1862). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=857303 on 2025-07-04
NatureServe. (2014). NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://explorer.natureserve.org. (Accessed: January 28, 2015).
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]
Wells, S. M., Pyle, R. M. and Collins, N. M. (compilers). (1983). The IUCN Invertebrate Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
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.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/10354/epioblasma-sampsonii-sampsons-pearly-mussel
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