Monoplacophora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Monoplacophora | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Neopilina | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Monoplacophora Nils Hjalmar Odhner, 1940 |
Monoplacophora [1] is a class of molluscs. They have a cap-like shell and live on the bottom of the sea.
They were discovered as a living group in 1952, one of the most remarkable modern discoveries. As they were last known from the Devonian fossil record, this makes them a Lazarus taxon.
More than that, they are the most extreme example of the pull of the Recent, which is a term in palaeontology. All fossil groups have a first and last appearance in the fossil record but, for living species, their last appearance is the present day. This may be very much later than their last appearance as a fossil. The discovery of the living monoplacs extended their time range by 400 million years.[2]
