List of species described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark expedition encountered 174 plants and 134 species and subspecies of animals new to science. Lewis lost the notes about the specimens but analyses and detailed scientific descriptions of the specimens were performed by others. Lewis hired Frederick Pursh in Rhode Island to review the plant collection and describe and publish the results, which Pursh did in 1828. Lewis described and published none of the plants he collected in the Western Americo.
Animals
Mammals
- Discovered :
- * Black-tailed prairie dog
- * Bushy-tailed woodrat
- * Grizzly bear
- * Mule deer
- * Swift fox
- * White-tailed jackrabbit
- Described:
- * American badger
- * Beaver
- * Badlands bighorn sheep
- * Bison
- * Black bear
- * Columbian ground squirrel
- * Coyote
- * Eastern cottontail
- * Eastern fox squirrel
- * Elk
- * Eastern gray squirrel
- * Gray wolf
- * Long-tailed weasel
- * Muskrat
- * Mountain lion
- * Northern pocket gopher
- * Northern river otter
- * Northern short-tailed shrew
- * Black-tailed deer
- * Porcupine
- * Red fox
- * Richardson's ground squirrel or flickertail
- * Striped skunk
- * Thirteen-lined ground squirrel
- * White-tailed deer
Birds
- Discovered :
- * Clark's nutcracker
- * Common poorwill
- * Greater sage-grouse
- * Interior least tern
- * Lewis' woodpecker
- Described:
- *American crow
- * American goldfinch
- * American kestrel
- * American robin
- * American white pelican
- * Bald eagle
- * Bank swallow
- * Belted kingfisher
- * Black-bellied plover
- * Blue grouse
- * Blue jay
- * Brewer's blackbird
- * Brown-headed cowbird
- * Canada goose
- * Carolina parakeet
- * Cedar waxwing
- * Cliff swallow
- * Piping Plover
- * Common Nighthawk
- * Common raven
- * Eastern kingbird
- * Great blue heron
- * Great egret
- * Greater prairie-chicken
- * Golden eagle
- * Great horned owl
- * Hairy woodpecker
- * Horned lark
- * Killdeer
- * Lark sparrow
- * Loggerhead shrike
- * Long-billed curlew
- * Mallard
- * Merganser
- * Mourning dove
- * Northern flicker
- * Northern harrier - tentative
- * Osprey
- * Passenger pigeon
- * Pinyon jay
- * Piping plover
- * Plains sharp-tailed grouse
- * Red-headed woodpecker
- * Red-tailed hawk
- * Red-winged blackbird
- * Ruffed grouse
- * Sandhill crane
- * Snow goose
- * Sprague's pipit
- * Upland sandpiper
- * Western meadowlark
- * Whip-poor-will
- * Whooping crane
- * Wild turkey
- * Willet
- * Wood duck
Reptiles
- Western rattlesnake
- Western hognose snake
- Bull snake
- Spiny softshell turtle
- Western garter snake
- Horned lizard
Fish
- Discovered :
- *Blue catfish
- *Channel catfish
- *Goldeye
- *Mountain whitefish
- *White sturgeon ''
- Described:
- *Cutthroat trout
- *Westslope cutthroat trout
- *Coastal cutthroat trout
- *Common northern sucker
- *Sauger
Plants
- Discovered :
- * Black greasewood
- * Blue flax
- * Buffaloberry
- * Curly-top gumweed
- * Fringed sagebrush
- * Indian tobacco
- * Lanceleaf sage
- * Shadscale
- * Snow-on-the-mountain
- * White milkwort
- * Aromatic aster
- * Aromatic sumac also called squaw bush
- * Bearberry also called kinnikinnick
- * Bur oak
- * Broom snakeweed
- * Canada milk-vetch
- * Common horsetail, also called scouring rush
- * Common juniper
- * Common monkey-flower
- * Creeping juniper
- * Dwarf sagebrush
- * Eastern cottonwood
- * False indigo
- * Fire-on-the-mountain
- * Golden currant
- * Large-flowered clammyweed
- * Long-leaved sagebrush also called mugwort
- * Meadow anemone
- * Missouri milk-vetch
- * Moundscale
- * Needle-and-thread grass also called porcupine grass
- * Pasture sagewort
- * Pin cherry
- * Ponderosa pine
- * Purple coneflower
- * Purple prairie-clover
- * Rabbitbrush
- * Raccoon grape
- * Rigid goldenrod
- * Rocky Mountain beeplant
- * Rough gayfeather also called large button snakeroot
- * Silky wormwood
- * Spiny goldenweed
- * Thick-spike gayfeather also called prairie button snakeroot
- * Western red cedar also called Rocky Mountain juniper
- * Wild four-o'clock
- * Wild rice
- * Wild rose