FIRST NEOGENE RECORD OF AN ARTICULATED POLYPLACOPHORAN

In spite of a long geological record from the Paleozoic Era to the present, most paleontological documentation of multivalved chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) is based on individual, loose plates. Indeed, the tendency of the chitinous girdle in which the eight calcareous plates are articulated to disintegrate usually does not allow their post-mortem association to be observed (e.g., Smith, 1960; Squires and Goedert, 1995; Dell'Angelo et al., 1998).