The idea was to print engravings of three species of mussels with the inside of the shells on the recto of a sheet, and the outside of the shells on the verso of the same sheet. In the background would be two views of the river from the same spot: one looking upstream, and the other down. But before I could begin engraving, I needed to meet with biologist Mike Davis for verification of the identities of the shells. He was unavailable for a few weeks, so I decided to go ahead and engrave a fractured Giant Floater (Pyganodon grandis), whose identity was certain.
I sorted through the 138 mussel specimens collected and selected about half of them for identity verification. Biologist Davis noted that the two Lake Pepin Mucket specimens represented both sexes. I asked him how he could tell the difference, and he pointed out the bulge in the female shell to accommodate her larvae. This was too interesting to pass up, so I decided to revise the image.
