A rare species of mussel was found for the first time in the Obed River in Morgan County, Tennessee, the National Park Service announced last week.
During a routine monitoring survey of the Obed Wild and Scenic River, NPS staff found a single slabside pearly mussel, known scientifically as the Pleuronaia dolabelloides, which was listed as endangered in 2013.
The species once inhabited rivers in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, but today survives in only a few tributaries of the Tennessee river system. It has never before been recorded in the Emory or Obed branches of the basin.
An NPS spokesperson said the find was a “surprise” given years of regular mussel surveys in the river. Thirteen mussel species, including the newly discovered slabside pearly mussel, are known to inhabit the Obed, which NPS described as the last free flowing section of the Tennessee River.
