A healthy population of a rare species of mollusks, Truncilla macrodon, has been discovered in the Colorado River in Texas by Lyubov Burlakova, principal investigator and a research scientist with Buffalo State’s Great Lakes Center, and Alexander Karatayev, director of the Great Lakes Center.

Since the native species—commonly known as Texas Fawnsfoot—was first described in 1859, only about 200 live specimens have been found and only 12 in the last decade. However, in May, the team discovered a population of Texas Fawnsfoot consisting of about 3,000 individual specimens.

A petition to include Texas Fawnsfoot and five other species that scientists consider to be at risk of extinction under the protection of the Endangered Species Act is being reviewed by the Secretary of the Interior.

Pictured: Texas endemic smooth pimpleback. Photo by Lyubov Burlakova.