About Sagittunio nasutus (Say, 1817)
Sagittunio nasutus, commonly known as the eastern pondmussel, is a species of freshwater mussel belonging to the Unionidae family, also called the river mussel family. This species is native to the eastern United States and Ontario, Canada. In Canada, the eastern pondmussel has been negatively impacted by zebra mussels, which were introduced near the end of the 1980s. It was originally assessed as endangered, because only two Canadian populations of the species were known at the time. As a result, it was added to Schedule 1 of Canada’s Species at Risk Act in 2013. However, a 2017 reassessment conducted by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada discovered 17 new additional subpopulations. In August 2019, the eastern pondmussel was relisted as "special concern". Compared to eastern pondmussel populations from the eastern seaboard, populations in the lower Great Lakes show limited genetic diversity in certain mitochondrial genetic markers. This pattern is evidence of a founder effect, and suggests that Atlantic coast mussels reached the Great Lakes after the last glaciation via a restricted route. A population of eastern pondmussels living in tribal waters in the Lake St. Clair delta is protected by the Walpole Island First Nation. Like many other unionoid mussels, female eastern pondmussels display a lure to attract the fish hosts they need for their life cycle.
