Lampsilis teres shell description:

 "Shell large, elongated, with dorsal and ventral lines nearly parallel, rounded in front, pointed behind, more or less inflated, solid; beaks rather full but not high, their sculpture consisting of numerous, distinct ridges looped in the middle but open behind; posterior ridge low and rounded; surface smooth and shining, but often having concentric growth ridges in front, tawny to pale straw-color, sometimes with a few rays on the posterior slope, the rest of the shell generally rayless; there is often a large, brown flush in the umbonal region; ligament large and long; left valve with two subcompressed pseudocardinals, the hinder somewhat elongated, and two long, nearly straight, delicate laterals; right valve with two pseudocardinals, the upper faint, and one lateral; beak cavities not deep; muscle scars rather large, well impressed; nacre white, cream-colored, salmon-tinted or pink, slightly thicker in front.  Both male and female shell end behind in a point two-thirds of the way up from the base; the female shell has a large rounded marsupial swelling and slightly incurved at the central base” (Mather 2007).