UC Berkeley

The story of the discovery and study of the Monoplacophora (or Tryblidia) and how they have contributed to our understanding of the evolution of the Mollusca highlights the importance of integrating data from the fossil record with the study of living forms. Monoplacophora were common in the early Paleozoic and were thought to have become extinct during the Devonian Period, approximately 375 Mya. In the mid 1950s, they were recovered from abyssal depths off of Costa Rica and were immediately heralded as a “living fossil.” The living specimens confirmed that some of the organs (kidneys, heart, and gills) were repeated serially, just like the shell muscles that had been observed in fossil specimens. This supported the hypothesis that they were closely related to other segmented organisms such as annelids and arthropods. Today, there are 29 described living species and a growing body of work examining their anatomy, phylogeny, and ecology. Additional fossil specimens have also been discovered, and what was once thought to be a possible missing link between annelid worms and mollusks now appears to be a highly specialized branch of the molluscan tree that tells us little about the ancestral mollusk condition. However, some assumptions and generalizations from those early days still remain—such as the abyssal nature of the living species. A large part of the evolutionary history of the lineage remains to be discovered and will likely prove more complicated and interesting than afforded by the living fossil designation.