| Page last updatedWed 1 October 2025
 | The Freshwater Mussels (Unionoida) of the World (and other less consequential bivalves)FM(U)otW(aolcb) is the web version of the MUSSEL Project Database. Follow the links to browse the data or use the custom Google search field. Either way, you win! 
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 East Asia The East Asia Region extends from the Amur River in Russia 
            south through Japan, Korea, China, Indochina and Indonesia, and west to 
            include India. East Asia is the most species-rich region on Earth, with 
            a total of 365 species (91 genera) in three families: 
            Unionidae, 
            Margaritiferidae 
            and Etheriidae.
 The East Region is subdivided into seven subregions, each with 
            a characteristic freshwater mussel assemblage.  The low-richness basins 
            north of the Amur draining into the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk comprise 
            Beringia (AS1; 3 gen., 3 spp., 0 endemic). The Amur-Korea 
            Subregion (AS2; 17 gen., 29 spp., 16 endemic ) includes the 
            Amur Basin and rivers draining to the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, 
            as far south as the Liao He Basin. Japan, Sakhalin Island, and the 
            Kuril Islands are group as the Japan-Sakhalin Subregion (AS3; 14 gen., 28 spp., 19 endemic). The Yangtze-Huang Subregion 
            (AS4; 29 gen., 89 spp., 65 endemic) covers the basins from the 
            Pei River south through the Qiantang, as well as Taiwan. The area from 
            southern China to the western Thailand, including the Mekong, is the 
            Indochina Subregion (AS5; 45 gen., 150 spp., 127 endemic). The 
            larger islands of Indonesia and the Philippines we group as the 
            Sunda-Philippines Subregion (AS6; 17 gen., 31 spp., 24 endemic). 
            The India-Myanmar Subregion (AS7; 20 gen., 82 spp., 77 endemic) 
            extends from the Salween River in the east to the Indus on its western 
            frontier.  New Guinea is part of the 
            Australasian Region, and Sulawesi does not seem to have any freshwater 
            mussels. Endemic species are marked with an asterisk (*). Beringia (AS1)Amur-Korea (AS2)Japan-Sakhalin (AS3)Yangtze-Huang (AS4)Indochina (AS5)Sunda-Philippines (AS6)India-Myanmar (AS7) |