I'm a self-taught hobbyist-naturalist from Minnesota, USA.

By "self-taught", I mean that I've read many books and publicly-available papers and other information sources, I've added my own personal observations, and that I've worked things out with others here in iNaturalist (especially the core "Canaiad" team). I haven't had training or classes.

By "hobbyist", I mean that I do this for fun. I'm not affiliated with any organization. I don't have any relevant credentials. My employment is completely unrelated to this.

Go ahead and disagree with my identifications; I could be wrong. But if you think I'm wrong, let's discuss it. (If you don't speak English, online translation services usually work great, though some words for parts of the shell don't translate very well...I'll try to use more technical terms.)

I came to iNat for the freshwater mussels (Unionida) of Minnesota, USA. I had a bit of interest in mussels before, but I really got into them during the COVID lockdowns, when I spent a lot of time in and next to the Mississippi River near my home. Doing some personal research, I found iNat.

Since I've joined, I've been slowly expanding my knowledge to include:

1. Unionida of the USA and Canada
2. Worldwide Unionida

3. other freshwater Bivalvia (plus the brackish and marine species related to freshwater species),
   starting in North America but adding worldwide:

   • Cyrenoidea (mostly Corbicula)
   • Dreissenoidea
   • Sphaeriida

I've just begun to become familiar with some of the entirely brackish and marine bivalves.

My previous interests have included Birds, Fungi, and Trees.
But it's freshwater bivalves that I come to iNat for.

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