MUSSELpdb
Taxonomy
Species & Genus Richness of
freshwater mussels
by Taxonomy
Species & Genus Richness of
freshwater bivalves
by Family
Geography
Species Richness & Endemism of
freshwater mussels
by Geography
Data last updated
Thu 22 January 2026
Bivalvia | Unionida | Unionoidea
family UNIONIDAE Rafinesque, 1820
synonyms (71 nomina) | cladomics
Global Distribution of the Unionidae. The
blue majority of the pie depicts the relative Recent species diversity
of the family in the order Unionida (800 of
1005).
The Unionidae is the richest of the six extant freshwater mussel families by far. We currently recognize 800 Recent species (180 genera) worldwide, and there are representatives in each of the six geographical regions. In the no-so-distant past, we punted with regard to the infra-familial arrangement of the Unionidae. The classification has since been updated and is applied here. We currently recognize five Recent subfamilies.
Included Taxa
subfamily AMBLEMINAE Rafinesque, 1820: 303 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (17 nomen) | 5 tribes
Recent Distribution: Central America, North America, East Asia
genus Germainaia Graf & Cummings, 2009: 1 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (1 available nomen) | 1 species
Recent Distribution: Afrotropics
subfamily GONIDEINAE Ortmann, 1916: 174 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (16 nomen) | 7 genera, 6 tribes
Recent Distribution: East Asia, North America, North Eurasia
genus Haasodonta McMichael, 1956: 2 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (1 available nomen) | 2 species
Recent Distribution: Australasia
subfamily PARREYSIINAE Henderson, 1935: 108 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (13 nomen) | 5 tribes
Recent Distribution: East Asia, Afrotropics
subfamily UNIONINAE Rafinesque, 1820: 228 Recent freshwater species.
synonymy (23 nomina) | 5 tribes
Recent Distribution: East Asia, North America, Australasia, North Eurasia, Central America, Afrotropics
genus Mujanaia Delevene, Munt, Piñuela & García-Ramos, 2016: fossil only.
genus Plesielliptio Russell, 1934: fossil only.
synonymy (2 available nomina) | 10 species
genus Unionelloides Gu [Ku], 1962: fossil only.
synonymy (6 available nomina) | 29 species
