The depressed mussel, Pseudanodonta complanata, has every reason to feel dejected. This endangered species has disappeared from the River Thames at Reading, once considered to be a stronghold of its kind. Poor river management and invasive species such as zebra mussel are pushing it to extinction, along with two of its other British cousins, the duck and painter’s mussels.
These two species have declined by 95% in this stretch of the Thames, according to a study by academics at the University of Cambridge. Only empty shells were found of the depressed mussel.
