Abstract

Xenoturbella bocki Westblad1 is a strange animal — a 2-cm-long, slowly moving ciliated bag with no anus and no organs except for a position-sensing statocyst containing flagellated statoconia2. Despite the animal's peculiarities, it has been neglected by most textbooks. I now report a study of oogenesis in X. bocki which, together with the nucleotide data of Noren and Jondelius3, contradicts earlier hypotheses as to the phylogeny of the animal and instead suggests a molluscan relationship close to or within the protobranch bivalves.

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