Dinaric cave clam Congeria kusceri, Bole 1962 Congeria kusceri
(Dinaric cave clam) is the only underground bivalve in the
world. It is a tertiary relic, the remnant of the Tertiary fauna
which was able to survive to the present day, occupying the
underground habitat. This way it survived the changes on the
surface which led other species of Congeria to extinction. The
entire genus was considered extinct until 1934 when the shells
were found in spring Stinjevac near Vrgorac in Dalmatia. Based
on them, Slovenian malacologist Ljudevit Kušcer assumed that
Congeria still lives in the depths of the underground. However,
the first live specimens were found in the Žira ponor in Popovo
polje in Herzegovina by Jože Štirn. It was only in 1962 that the
Slovenian malacologist Jože Bole described a new species
Congeria kusceri. Shells of the Dinaric cave clam size up to 20
mm, they are oval and the front end is elongated and tapering to
a triangular and curved top. Both shells are very prominent and
rounded, and without re