Transitional Ordovician Bivalve with Both Monoplacophoran and Lucinacean Affinities

Abstract

The rare and problematic Ordovician molluscan genus Babinka is a probable evolutionary link between the bivalve superfamily Lucinacea and some monoplacophora-like ancestral mollusc. Babinka provides the first direct evidence of a transition between the class Bivalvia and more primitive molluscan ancestors.