Baby freshwater mussels

Missouri is home to 65 species of freshwater mussels, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. Freshwater mussels have two shells that hinge and protect the animal inside from danger. They live their whole lives beneath the surface of water, where they go unseen by most people.

Freshwater mussels need clean water to survive. Their presence is a good indicator of a healthy river, lake, stream or pond. Most species of this animal need running streams to live and breed, but a few find the quiet waters of lakes and ponds with mud bottoms their favored habitat.

My image here shows five tiny -- about one-quarter inch across -- very fragile juvenile mussels attached to an old seedpod commonly called a gumball. The gumball had fallen from a sweet-gum tree probably about a year ago and ended up submerged at the edge of a pond. I used a fish dip-net made for dipping minnows to reach into the shallow water at the edge of the pond, where I made this discovery. One of the little mussels had extended its "foot," indicating to me that it wanted to be put back into the water. The temperature outdoors was about 45 degrees on Feb.1, when I took this photo. I released the mussels unharmed, back where I had found them.