An endangered species of mussel found only in Missouri is being spread further out in an attempt to increase its population. Steve McMurray, state malacologist with the Department of Conservation, said 15,000 scaleshell mussels were recently deposited into the Osage River in central Missouri.
“We gathered up as many volunteers as we could and went out,” he told Missourinet. “Everybody grabbed a bag of muscles, little baby muscles that were an inch to two inches long, something like that. So, we just kind of placed them by hand in the substrate.”
Prior to that action, McMurray said scaleshell mussels could only be found in east-central Missouri.
“You know, we may go out and spend the day on…a couple of locations on the Meramec River or Gasconade River and only find, you know, four or five individual (mussels), you know, for an entire day,” he said.
The scaleshell mussel can also be found on the Bourbeuse River in east-central Missouri.
The Osage River was selected because of evidence of past scaleshell mussel habitat there.
McMurray also told Missourinet that scaleshell mussels are smaller than most other mussels.
“Males can get to be about three to maybe four inches long and females are a bit shorter than that,” he said. “Their shells are kind of compressed when you look at them from above. They have a very thin shell and so they’re very easy to break.”
Scaleshell mussels play a vital role in Missouri’s aquatic ecosystems by improving water quality and filtering out pollutants. They also provide an extra food sources for fish, birds, and small mammals.
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