Facts about Extinct Animals
Animal that has gone extinct ( Alasmidonta mccordi
The Coosa elktoe, scientific name Alasmidonta mccordi, was a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. This species was endemic to the United States.
[pic]
I didn’t manage to find any specific ecological role of Coosa Elktoe, however I found the ecological role of mussels. Mussels play a key role in aquatic environments and are considered to be "ecosystem engineers" because they modify aquatic habitat, making it more suitable for themselves and other organisms.
One of the valuable functions performed by mussels is capturing organic matter from the water column when they siphon, processing it to build body and shell, excreting nutrients that are immediately available to plant life and then depositing the remaining organic material to the sediment making it available for other invertebrates and fish to consume. During this feeding process, the mussels "clean" the water they live in by removing phytoplankton and the bacteria and fungi that are attached to the non living organic particles they have removed from the water column. Other undesirable particles and chemicals are bound in the mussels' pseudo feces and deposited on the river bottom. This species was known only from a single specimen collected from the Coosa River in St. Clair County, Alabama and after its’ extinction the River was observed and there were no changes found, therefore, I suppose its’ extinction had no effects on ecology or if it did the effects are not significant and cannot be observed.
|Kingdom: |Animalia |
|Phylum: |Mollusca |
|Class: |Bivalvia |
|Order: |Unionoida |
|Family: |Unionidae |
|Genus: |Alasmidonta |
Alasmidonta mccordi was listed in 1996 (Baillie and Groombridge 1996) as Critically Endangered due to
The Coosa elktoe, scientific name Alasmidonta mccordi, was a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. This species was endemic to the United States.
[pic]
I didn’t manage to find any specific ecological role of Coosa Elktoe, however I found the ecological role of mussels. Mussels play a key role in aquatic environments and are considered to be "ecosystem engineers" because they modify aquatic habitat, making it more suitable for themselves and other organisms.
One of the valuable functions performed by mussels is capturing organic matter from the water column when they siphon, processing it to build body and shell, excreting nutrients that are immediately available to plant life and then depositing the remaining organic material to the sediment making it available for other invertebrates and fish to consume. During this feeding process, the mussels "clean" the water they live in by removing phytoplankton and the bacteria and fungi that are attached to the non living organic particles they have removed from the water column. Other undesirable particles and chemicals are bound in the mussels' pseudo feces and deposited on the river bottom. This species was known only from a single specimen collected from the Coosa River in St. Clair County, Alabama and after its’ extinction the River was observed and there were no changes found, therefore, I suppose its’ extinction had no effects on ecology or if it did the effects are not significant and cannot be observed.
|Kingdom: |Animalia |
|Phylum: |Mollusca |
|Class: |Bivalvia |
|Order: |Unionoida |
|Family: |Unionidae |
|Genus: |Alasmidonta |
Alasmidonta mccordi was listed in 1996 (Baillie and Groombridge 1996) as Critically Endangered due to