Tryonia alamosae, common name the Alamosa springsnail, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of small freshwater snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, an aquatic

Aquatic animal

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life. It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through its skin. Natural environments and the animals that...

 prosobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Hydrobiidae

Hydrobiidae

Hydrobiidae, common name mud snails, is a large cosmopolitan taxonomic family of very small freshwater snails and brackish water snails that have an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the clade Littorinimorpha.- Distribution :...

.

The species is endemic to Socorro County, New Mexico

Socorro County, New Mexico

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*75.1% White*1.1% Black*11.7% Native American*1.2% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*2.8% Two or more races*8.1% Other races*48.5% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where only one population is known. It was placed on the federal endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 list along with the Socorro springsnail

Socorro springsnail

The Socorro springsnail, scientific name Pyrgulopsis neomexicana, is an endangered species of minute freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Hydrobiidae, the mud snails....

 in 1991.

The snail occurs in five small connected springs within half a mile of each other; this is thought to be a single population. The snail was discovered in 1979 and described to science as a new species in 1987.

Further reading

• Mollusc Specialist Group 2000. Tryonia alamosae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 3 February 2011.
• Species profile at U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service