Neopilina facts for kids

Neopilina is a special type of mollusc, like snails or clams. It is the only living member of a very old group called monoplacophora. For a long time, scientists thought this group had died out completely. But then, Neopilina was discovered alive! This makes it a true "living fossil".

A Living Fossil Discovered

For millions of years, scientists only knew about monoplacophora from fossils. These fossils showed that these creatures lived from the Cambrian Period to the Devonian Period. That's about 541 to 359 million years ago! Everyone thought they had been extinct for a very long time.

But in 1952, something amazing happened. A special ship was exploring the deep Pacific Ocean near Mexico. It used a dredge to collect samples from the seafloor. To everyone's surprise, they found a live mollusc that looked just like the ancient monoplacophora fossils! They named this new discovery Neopilina.

Finding Neopilina was one of the most exciting discoveries of a "living fossil." A living fossil is an animal or plant that was thought to be extinct but is found alive. Neopilina is also called a Lazarus taxon. This means a group that disappears from the fossil record for a long time, then reappears.

What Does Neopilina Look Like?

Neopilina is a small mollusc. It has a single, cap-shaped shell, which is why it's called a monoplacophoran ("mono" means one, "placo" means plate, "phora" means bearing). Its body is soft and it has several pairs of gills. These gills help it breathe underwater.

Scientists are still studying Neopilina to understand how it fits into the mollusc family tree. Some studies suggest it might be related to chitons, another type of mollusc with many shell plates. However, other studies show it's quite unique. It doesn't look much like what scientists imagine an "ancestral mollusc" might have looked like.

Where Does Neopilina Live?

Neopilina lives in the very deep parts of the ocean. It prefers cold, dark waters far below the surface. These deep-sea environments are often stable and don't change much. This might be why Neopilina has survived for so long without changing much itself.

Scientists have found different species of Neopilina in various deep ocean locations. These include parts of the Pacific Ocean, like off the coast of Mexico and near Samoa. Exploring the deep sea is difficult, so there might be more species of Neopilina waiting to be discovered!

Images for kids

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  Video footage screenshot of Neopilina sp., from the 2017 Okeanos Explorer American Samoa expedition

See also

In Spanish: Neopilina para niños