Rangia cuneata on the East Coast: Thousand Mile Range Extension, or Resurgence?

Rangia cuneata, a valuable clam of the estuarine zone where fluctuating salinities (from 0 to 15 parts per thousand) exclude most animals, is now developing large populations in many estuaries from Florida to Maryland. Before 1955 it was thought to be extinct on the East Coast since the Pleistocene and to be living only in Gulf Coast estuaries.