''Rhodacmea filosa'', the wicker ancylid, is a species of small, air-breathing,

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks that live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs t ...

limpet Limpets are a group of aquatic snails with a conical gastropod shell, shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). Existing within the class Gastropoda, ...

, a

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Planorbidae Planorbidae, common name the ramshorn snails or ram's horn snails, is a family (biology), family of air-breathing freshwater snails, Aquatic animal, aquatic pulmonate gastropod Mollusca, molluscs. Unlike most molluscs, the blood of ram's horn sn ...

. ''Rhodacmea filosa'' is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus ''Rhodacmea''.

Distribution

This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and was thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, until its rediscovery in 2011.Ó Foighil D., Li J., Lee T., Johnson P., Evans R. & Burch J. B. (2011). "Conservation Genetics of a Critically Endangered Limpet Genus and Rediscovery of an Extinct Species". '' PLoS ONE'' 6(5): e20496. . It occurred in the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

Basin rivers and their tributaries. The type locality is the

Black Warrior River The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles (286 km) to the Tombigbee River, of which the ...

, south of

Blount Springs, Alabama Blount Springs is an unincorporated community in Blount County, Alabama United States. Geography The community is located three miles east of Interstate 65, approximately north of Birmingham and 28 miles south of Cullman. History Blount Spri ...

. Conrad T. A. (1834). "New fresh-water shells of the United States, with coloured illustrations, and a monograph of the genus ''Anculotus'' of Say; also a synopsis of the American naiads". Judah Dobson, Philadelphia, 76 pp
page 57
Over the past 20 years, extensive surveys that included hundreds of collecting sites in the drainages of the

Coosa River The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ac ...

Cahaba River The Cahaba River is the longest substantially free-flowing river in Alabama. It is a major tributary of the Alabama River and part of the larger Mobile River basin. With headwaters near Birmingham, the Cahaba flows southwest, then at Heiberger tu ...

and

(its type locality) had failed to find ''Rhodacmea filosa''. However, it does still persist in a

Choccolocco Creek The Choccolocco Creek is one of two main tributaries of the Coosa River in central Alabama. The watershed of the creek comprises 246,000 acres (376 mi2) of drainage area. The waterway runs through the Talledega National Forest (also referre ...

, a

tributary. Morphometric and phylogenetic analyses confirm the taxonomic validity of this material. Its survival in Choccolocco Creek is somewhat surprising, given the serious episodes of industrial

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

experienced by this watershed.

Description

''Rhodacmea filosa'' was originally discovered and described (under the name ''Ancylus filosus'') by

Timothy Abbott Conrad Timothy Abbott Conrad (June 21, 1803 in Trenton, New Jersey – August 9, 1877 in Trenton) was an American geologist and malacologist. Biography He was from early life an investigator of American paleontology and natural history, devoting ...

in 1834. Conrad's type description reads as follows: ''Rhodacmea filosa'' has an elevated patelliform

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

with ribbing in the form of strong radiating lines running from the

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

to the

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

References

This article incorporate public domain text from the reference and CC-BY-2.5 text from the reference

External links

*University of Michigan (2011, June 3)
Mass extinction victim survives: Snail long thought extinct isn't.
ScienceDaily.com. Retrieved June 5, 2011. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3078385 Planorbidae Gastropods described in 1834 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot