The subfossil occurrence ofMytilus edulisin central East Greenland has been C14‐dated to roughly between 8000 B.P. and 5500 B.P.; compared with other areas this is a short period. Its immigration coincides with the final deglaciation of the innermost fjords, and its disappearance is contemporaneous with an increase in cold‐climate plants, as shown by pollen spectra. It is suggested that it immigrated from the Svalbard area rather than from southeast Greenland, and that the central East Greenland fjord zone forms an isolated oasis, where more southerly species likeMytilusandChlamys islandicacan or could live, even if this was not possible along the surrounding and more hostile outer coasts. The reason for the absence ofMytilus edalisfrom the region today is probably not the local clim