Upland Combshell (Epioblasma metastriata)
The upland scallop lived in shallow areas including the Black Warrior and Cahaba rivers in Alabama and the Coosa River basin in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, USA.
The shell of the species reached a width of up to 6 cm.
The last living specimen of this species was collected from the Conasauga River in Georgia in 1988.
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syn. Dysnomia metastriata Conrad
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edited: 29.07.2012
Roan Mountain Ground Beetle (Trechus roanicus)
The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it was originally only known from its type locality, Roan High Bluff, the highest point on Roan Mountain in Tennessee, USA.
The species apparently is thought to occur in North Carolina as well, but I have no further information about that. [1]
The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle is considered possibly extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
The Boulder Snail was described in 1842; it inhabited the Clinch- and the Powell rivers which are a part of a river system that spans over parts of Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, USA.
The species is now extinct, the last remaining population of this species disappeared when the Tellico River was dammed in 1979 to create Lake Tellico.
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The Boulder Snail is sometimes considered rediscovered, however, these accounts must be assigned to a closely related species, Anthony’s Boulder Snail (Athearnia anthonyi (Redfield)).
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edited: 14.11.2021
Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. unicoi)
The Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle was described in 1979, this subspecies of the Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus Barr) is known only from the type locality, Stratton Meadows a place that extends from Monroe County, Tennessee to Graham County in North Carolina, USA. [1]
This form is considered possibly extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Clingmans Dome Ground Beetle (Trechus novaculosus)
This species, described in 1962, was restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Sevier County in Tennessee, USA. [1]
The species is thought to have also occurred in North carolina, however, I’m unable to find any additional information.
The species is thought to be extinct now.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Baker Bluff Cave Snail (Stenotrema morosum)
This species was described in 1985, it appears to be known exclusively from deposits from the Baker Bluff Cave in the Sullivan County of Tennessee, USA.
The species might be of Holocene age but appears to be extinct.
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edited: 25.05.2021
Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. luculentus)
The Luminous Ground Beetle, described in 1962, is apparently restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Swain County, North Carolina, USA. [1]
The species, respectively this nominate form of it, is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
The Acornshell aka. Acorn Pearly Mussel was described in 1834; this species inhabited the drainages of the Cumberland- and the Tennessee Rivers in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, USA.
The species died out due to habitat destruction and pollution; the last known individuals died in the 1970s due to exposure to domestic sewage.
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Photo from: ‘Paolo G. Albano; Barbara Bongiovanni; Pamela D’Occhio; Bruno Sabelli: Natural history museums as repositories of endangered diversity: the case of the United States Unionida in the Museo di Zoologia dell’Università di Bologna. Zoosystematics and Evolution 90(2): 105-111. 2014’
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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edited: 17.08.2022
Lewis’ Pearly Mussel (Epioblasma lewisii)
Lewis’ Pearly Mussel, also known as Forkshell, was once widespread over a large area in the Cumberland and Tennessee River systems.
The species is only known from empty shells, with the exception of a single specimen with preserved soft parts.
The larvae of the vast majority of the freshwater mussel species live parasitically in the gills of various river fish. However, nothing is usually known about the symbiotic relationships of the extinct species.
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syn. Dysnomia lewisi Walker, Plagiola lewisi (Walker), Truncilla lewisi (Walker)
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edited: 01.03.2024
Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis ssp. carolinensis)
The Carolina Parakeet was one of only two parrot species that are truly native to the USA (the other one is the Thick-billed Parakeet (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha (Swainson)) which, however, is now extinct there and only survives in northern Mexico).
The Chickasaw people named the bird ‘kelinky’, the Seminoles again named it ‘pot pot chee’ or ‘puzzi la née’.
The species had a very wide distributional area in the southern USA, where it inhabited old-growth wetland forests along rivers and swamps. The parakeets had a preference for the seeds of the Rough Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium L.) (see lso depiction below), a plant that contains toxic glucoside, making the flesh of the birds poisonous to predators (the American naturalist and painter John J. Audubon noted that cats apparently died from eating them).
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The Carolina Parakeet was considered a crop pest and birds were shot by the thousands. Some also ended in the feather trade, in which it apparently was especially popular to dye the originally very colorful birds completely black – such blackened specimens are still kept in several museums.
The last known Carolina Parakeet, a male named Incas, died in the Zoo of Cincinnati, Ohio at February 21, 1918. Yet, in the wild the species apparently survived for several years longer, this can be assumed from eggs that are kept in a museum and that had been collected in Florida in the year 1927.
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The Carolina Parakeet wasn’t particularly popular in the aviculture, especially because of its loud, harsh voice, however, the ornithologist Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch at the end of he 19th century kept a free-flying population in Germany which, being well-adapted to the European climate was thriving very well. This little population, that could have been the lifeline for the whole species, however, was shot by the innkeeper of a little pub in a neighboring village within only two days.
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edited: 20.01.2020
Florida Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos floridanus)
The short-faced bears, so named for the shape of their skulls, which appear to have a disproportionately short snout compared to other bears, are a subfamily (Tremarctinae) of the bears that are/were restricted to the Americas. Only a single species survives until today, the Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus (Cuvier)) of South America.
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The Florida Spectacled Bear, described in 1928 based on fossil bones from Pleistocene deposits, inhabited the southern parts of North America, including Mexico, as well as Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, and Tennessee, USA.
The species differed from its South American counterpart by its much larger size and its heavier proportions.
The Florida Spectacled Bear was mainly a Pleistocene species and disappeared at the end of that epoch, however, bones of the species, found at Delvil’s Den, a flooded karst cave in Florida, were dated to an age of about 8000 BC, indicating that the species may have survived for a somewhat longer time. [1]
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References:
[1] B. Kurtén; E. Anderson: Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press 1980
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edited: 04.11.2017