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Sculptures by Phyllis Bone

CLASS MONOPLACOPHORA


Monoplacophorans, as their name suggests, have a single symmetrical shell, which varies in shape from a flattened shield to a short cone. The small number of deep water species living today – such as Neopilina – may be relics of a much larger and more widespread group of ‘ancestral’ molluscs dating back to the Cambrian period. Neopilina sp. is very small and very rare. This drawing was made by Professor M. Ramult curator of Collections in the 1950s.

Professor M. Ramult
Monoplacophora