Simple guideline on photography of "big" River Mussels in Europe

It is pleasing that iNaturalists take photos of these overlooked animals in the field. Unfortunately, plenty of photos is taken with repeated errors. Therefore I would like to provide some useful information on how to take pictures correctly:

1) place the shell on a flat surface and take photos from above vertically to the shell plain; see nice examples here: www.researchgate.net/figure/The-eight-unionoid-species-of-the-North-and-Central-European-region-A-Anodonta_fig1_230574388 or here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-59867-7/figures/2

2) take close-up(s) of structures (umbonal rugae) on upper parts of the shell, which are crucial characteristics for Anodonta, Pseudanodonta, and Sinanodonta species; see figure 1 and 2 in my article here (roll down on page 4 of the PDF): https://docplayer.cz/14600192-Dolozene-vyskyty-skeble-rybnicne-anodonta-cygnea-bivalvia-unionida-z-ceske-a-polske-casti-slezska-a-ze-severni-moravy.html

3) if your find is a dead animal, open up both parts of the shell and take photo(s) of the inside, if not put it back to its environment (native "big" River Mussels are declining species in many parts of Europe)

4) post your pics on iNat and wait on ID or confirmation :-)

Publicado el 01 de julio de 2018 a las 02:15 PM por martinmandak martinmandak

Comentarios

You have just posted some pictures of big river mussels and may find my post useful for your next records of these creatures.
@pankowerin @magichuusom @thomas_eggers @tessa129 @sdmike @astrapia @tom126 @lenkabroov @ivoholy @zdenekglazer

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 6 años

Thanks Martin,
I wish I had taken better photos,I was working as a contractor on the River Meden at the time,and I felt that I should be working and not following my Hobby, I doubt if I'll get back to the site which had a really healthy population of Mussels,but I might be able to get someone to get me a specimen in the future.
Regards
Stephen

Anotado por stephen54 hace mas de 5 años

You are welcome, Stephen. Thanks for the info. Your find is pretty clear -- it's A. anatina without doubts.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 5 años

Ok, I saw this post before I saw your Id,Thanks
I'm going up to the Spey valley in Scotland in Sept. I know there used to be a big population of mussels there that were taken for pearls,if there's any left I'll try and get some better photos.
Regards
Stephen

Anotado por stephen54 hace mas de 5 años

Thanks for the advice! Iam going to do better shots in future. ;)

Anotado por cherusker hace mas de 5 años

Thanks Martin! I'm sorry my pictures are not good at all - I was running out of time and was very quickly (definitely far too quickly) taking some pictures. I hope to go back one day and will try to make appropriate pictures according to your instruction.
Best, Muriel

Anotado por murielbendel hace mas de 5 años

No problem, Muriel. Look forward to seeing your other finds!

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 5 años

Hi Martin, thanks for these informations! My picture was taken before I knew of this great website. :)
Next time I know what to do.
Best regards, Marc

Anotado por jantiff hace mas de 5 años

Hi Marc, thanks for the comment.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 5 años

Thanks for the guidelines !
In this case I couldn't reach the shell, but next time I'll take more detailed pictures if possible.

Anotado por nicz hace mas de 5 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 5 años

Thanks for the explanations ! Next time, I'll take better pictures :-)

Anotado por vaudoiseaux hace mas de 5 años

OK. Curious what you will find next time. :-)

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 5 años

thanks for the advice!

Anotado por mammal hace cerca de 5 años

thanks for all these informations!

I found the empty mussel shells in a dried out pond (without water from at least August til end of the year I think). At home after searching through the web and finding that they are Anodonta I was fascinated happy and sad at the same time, learning that they need good water conditions to dwell, and are therefore endangered. Happy that they dwelled in this little, unremarkable, very likely artifical pond, sad that they made it after perhaps decades and generations of good living there not through the summer of 2018.

Would you say there is a chance that the species will be able to resettle in the pond some day?

Alas, I had taken the shells home, so I will upload photos that show hopefully more of the important details, as soon as I had good enough daylight and time.

Anotado por mobbini hace cerca de 5 años

You are welcome. Yes, the species can recolonize the habitat again with help of birds. Tag me once you upload more pics to your observation, please.

Anotado por martinmandak hace cerca de 5 años

That is good to hear, so I cross my fingers for many bird visitors to the pond.

I'll be happy to let you know when I uploaded new images.

Anotado por mobbini hace cerca de 5 años

Hi martinmandak,

I hopefully catched some of the needed details. There are now three observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20317868
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20157805
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20157759

Anotado por mobbini hace cerca de 5 años

Sorry for my belated response. I discovered your advice just now.

This is really helpful. Thanks a lot! : D
@martinmandak

Anotado por kai_pirinha hace cerca de 5 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace cerca de 5 años

thanks, Martin.

Anotado por domir hace casi 5 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 5 años

Thank you for the advice @martinmandak, I'll try to update my shots :-)

Anotado por shulard hace casi 5 años

My pleasure, Stéphane.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 5 años

Thanks for the advice, next time I find one I will follow your instructions.

Anotado por guido_sardella hace casi 5 años

Perfect, Guido!

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 5 años

Thanks for all these usefull informations! I will try to remember it next time when i take pictures of mussels and try to identify them myself^^

Anotado por mumpitzz hace casi 5 años

My pleasure, Janka.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 5 años

@martinmandak Many thanks for the usefull informations. Next time I will follow your instructions.

Anotado por szuwarek hace mas de 4 años

You are welcome, Dariusz.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 4 años

Photographing (big river) mussels will never be withouth thinking of your advice. Thanks!

Anotado por bobmeewis hace mas de 4 años

You are welcome, Bob! :-)

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 4 años

Thanks for these informations!

Anotado por panasenkonn hace mas de 4 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 4 años

Thank you very much Martin!
i will surely follow your tips next time

Anotado por luc-arc hace mas de 4 años

My pleasure, Luciano.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 4 años

Vielen Dank !

Anotado por speedy hace mas de 4 años

Thanks a lot, I wont make the same mistakes again!

Anotado por reyon hace mas de 4 años

OK, you're welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 4 años

thx

Anotado por mangoblatt hace cerca de 4 años

In my case, it was dead one. So I just know hot to take pictures of River Mussels. So I ´m glad you posted this text.

Anotado por peternociar hace cerca de 4 años

Thank you! I'll follow this advice from now on. Thanks for the effort!

Anotado por toemmoe hace cerca de 4 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace cerca de 4 años

Thanks. It's just a passing observation.

Anotado por a-lapin hace cerca de 4 años

Thanks Martin that's helpful. I'm using the lockdown time to look at the natural history close to home and been both delighted and astonished at the wealth of life locally. I had no idea there were mussels in our loch, found this shell where the gulls hang out. It's quite small and I've no experience in identification but could post more pics of of assistance?

Kind regards, Colin

Anotado por tiggerpics hace casi 4 años

Hi Colin, if you add more pictures, I may specify my ID to the species level.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 4 años

Thanks a lot!
Best wishes,
Anna

Anotado por annagazda hace casi 4 años

No problem. :-)

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 4 años

Thanks for informations, I'll try to take better photos next time

Anotado por victor_85 hace casi 4 años

Thanks for the information, I will work on it in the future, but since the water was 16,5°C and I had no suite on, I can't promise anything ;)

Anotado por markkir hace casi 4 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 4 años

Thanks, Martin! Will hopefully do better next time, it was a find in my neighbourhood lake.

Anotado por jensu hace casi 4 años

Hi, you're welcome. Look forward to your next finds. :-)

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 4 años

Thank you for the additional information— will be better prepared next time.

Anotado por pzf hace casi 4 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace casi 4 años

Thank you very much! I'll do better pictures next time :)

Anotado por vlasta_loya hace mas de 3 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 3 años

Thanks.

Anotado por arturasvai hace mas de 3 años

Дякую! Thanks!

Anotado por sytnyktetiana hace mas de 3 años

You are welcome.

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 3 años

Hi Martin, Thanks alot for the guide. I'm sorry it took me so long to notice your post, but I'll keep it in mind as I live in an area with many strems i good ecological quality.
Best regards, Peter

Anotado por petereriksen hace mas de 3 años

Hi Peter, it's OK. I am waiting for your other finds! :-)

Anotado por martinmandak hace mas de 3 años
Anotado por gerrit_oehm hace mas de 3 años

Thank you, a very useful article!

Anotado por tarsen hace 3 meses

Thanks!

Anotado por martinmandak hace 3 meses

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