Pink Mucket

The pink mucket has a rounded to slightly elongate thick inflated shell. Its smooth yellowish brown or chestnut colored (some adults)  shell is rayless or has faint green rays. The anterior end is rounded and  posterior end is bluntly pointed in males, and truncated in females. The dorsal margin is straight, and the ventral margin is straight to slightly curved. The umbos is turned forward and elevated above the hinge line. Beak sculpture, if visible, is of three or four double-looped ridges. The teeth (located dorsally within the shell) are large and well developed. The pseudocardinal teeth are triangular, thick, and divergent; two in the left valve, one in the right, occasionally with a smaller tubercular tooth in front. The lateral teeth are short, heavy, and relatively thick. The shell's inner lining (nacre) is white to a light salmon or pink and commonly salmon to orange in the deep beak cavities. The length of the pink mucket is up to 4 inches (10.2 cm).

Pink muckets live in the large stream reaches where flowing water covers beds of cobble, gravel and sand. The depth of the water can vary from one inch to five feet deep.  They are found in the lower Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their larger tributaries.