Poole, Karen E.
Species
many-shaped dreissena
KINGDOM
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumMollusca
- ClassBivalvia
- OrderMyida
- FamilyDreissenidae
Just like other freshwater mussels, zebra mussels play an important role in keeping water clean. In European waters, an individual mussel can filter 76 milliliters of water per hour. This means that zebra mussels in the IJsselmeer are capable of filtering the entire lake around two times per month, clearing up the lake considerably. Zebra mussels can also cause an enormous amount of economic damage. They attach themselves easily to exhaust pipes of power stations and cooling water systems, plugging them up. In North America in particular, they form a large problem.
via GBIF
Wikidata facts
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Dreissena polymorpha
- taxon rank
- species
- taxon name
- Dreissena polymorpha
- Commons gallery
- Dreissena polymorpha
- IUCN conservation status
- Least Concern
- taxon common name
- Wandermuschel
via Wikidata · CC0
~34 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) is a small freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Dreissenidae. The species originates from the lakes of southwestern Russia and southeastern Europe, but has been accidentally introduced to numerous other areas and has become an invasive species in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Since the 1980s, the species has invaded the Great Lakes, Hudson River, Lake Travis, Finger Lakes, Lake Bonaparte, and Lake Simcoe. The adverse effects of dreissenid mussels on freshwater systems have led to their classification as among the world's most invasive aquatic species.
The species was first described in 1768 by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in the Ural, Volga, and Dnieper Rivers. Zebra mussels get their name from a striped pattern commonly seen on their shells, though it is not universally present. They are usually about the size of a fingernail, but can grow to a maximum length around 50 mm (2 in). Their shells are D-shaped, and attached to the substrate with strong byssal fibres, which come out of their umbo on the dorsal (hinged) side.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “zebra mussel” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.