''Utterbackia imbecillis'', commonly called the paper pondshell, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves. The majority of species of bivalve molluscs ...

, an aquatic

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biv ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

in the family

Unionidae The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids. The range of distribution for this family is world-wide. It is at its most dive ...

, the river mussels.

Distribution

This species is native to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. It is present in the Mississippi interior basin, western and eastern gulf, and the Atlantic Slope drainages. It is a common and widespread species. Thousands of individuals can inhabit a single pond. It is characterized by its unusually thin shell.

References

*Haag, W. R. (2012). ''North American Freshwater Mussels: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation''. Cambridge University Press. *Vidrine, M. F. (1993) ''The historical distributions of fresh-water mussels in Louisiana.'' Gail O. Vidrine Collectibles. . Molluscs of the United States imbecillis Bivalves described in 1829 {{Unionidae-stub