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Article: The origins of molluscs

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 58
Part: 1
Publication Date: January 2015
Page(s): 19 34
Author(s): Jakob Vinther
Addition Information

How to Cite

VINTHER, J. The origins of molluscs. Palaeontology, 1, 19-34.

Author Information

  • Jakob Vinther - Schools of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK (email: jakob.vinther@bristol.ac.uk)

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 7 JAN 2015
  • Article first published online: 26 NOV 2014
  • Manuscript Accepted: 20 OCT 2014
  • Manuscript Received: 3 SEP 201

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library (Free Access)
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Abstract

The interrelationships and evolutionary history of molluscs have seen great advances in the last decade. Recent phylogenetic studies have allowed alternative morphology-based evolutionary scenarios to be tested and, most significantly, shown that the aplacophorans are sister group to polyplacophorans (chitons), corroborating palaeontological and embryological evolutionary scenarios in which aplacophorans are secondarily simplified from a chiton-like ancestor. Aplacophoran morphology therefore does not represent the plesiomorphic condition for molluscs as a whole. The mollusc crown group radiated in the Early Cambrian, and rapidly thereafter, stem lineages to the major molluscan classes emerged: cephalopods, gastropods, bivalves (= pelecypods), monoplacophorans, rostroconchs (inferred stem scaphopods) and aculiferans. This attests to the fast, adaptive radiation of the crown group during the Cambrian explosion. Kimberella from the latest Ediacaran exhibits several molluscan traits, which justifies its position as a molluscan stem-group member, rather than as a more basal Lophotrochozoan. The interrelationships among the conchiferan molluscs are still a matter of contention and require further palaeontological and molecular phylogenetic scrutiny.

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