Move from named fossils to living genomes and experiments while keeping observation, homology, topology and nomenclature separate.
Each step names its evidence claims, with references below. Interactive Explorer states are available in the full application; the narrative remains an editorial synthesis.
More than 35 White Sea specimens preserve bilateral organization and a dorsal cover, but no radula or crown-mollusc diagnosis.
A named Ediacaran sample tests character homology without becoming a direct ancestor or global Mollusca first appearance.
claim:event:kimberella-white-sea-morphologyAcross 189 Odontogriphus specimens, paired teeth on a membrane show posterior replacement beside a broad foot and mantle groove.
The geometry is observed; radular homology and stem-mollusc placement remain comparative conclusions.
claim:event:odontogriphus-radula-sampleOrthrozanclus combines an anterior shell, three zones of imbricating sclerites and long marginal spines.
Halwaxiida is a scored topology, not an observed ancestor chain or secure crown assignment.
claim:event:orthrozanclus-halwaxiid-mosaicPojetaia sections preserve a laminar inner fabric compared with foliated aragonite; undisputed Cambrian nacre is withheld.
Preservation and homology limit mineral interpretation; the sections do not establish every bivalve shell pathway.
claim:event:pojetaia-shell-microstructureNectocaris has paired eyes, fins, two tentacles and a funnel-like structure in ninety newly prepared specimens.
Missing shell, siphuncle, beak and radula evidence keeps the cephalopod placement explicitly contested.
claim:event:nectocaris-soft-body-cephalopod-testChitons group with sampled aplacophorans, while gastropods and bivalves form another supported clade in the Kocot et al. analyses.
Monoplacophora was absent and some alternatives were not rejected, so the result remains matrix-specific.
claim:event:aculifera-phylogenomic-topologyFifteen new transcriptomes bring Monoplacophora into an all-class sample that recovers it with Cephalopoda in principal analyses.
Conflicting deep nodes and corrected supplementary figures are retained rather than averaged into false certainty.
claim:event:all-class-mollusc-phylogenomicsLottia and Biomphalaria express nodal and Pitx on opposite sides; inhibition disrupts pathway output and shell coiling.
This living experiment does not directly reconstruct fossil torsion or every gastropod coiling mechanism.
claim:event:gastropod-nodal-chiralityOne Octopus bimaculoides genome and twelve tissue transcriptomes reveal targeted family expansions and extensive rearrangement.
Comparative association is not a single-gene cause of arms, suckers or neural complexity; whole-genome duplication was not supported.
claim:event:octopus-genome-innovationMicrina mitral and sellate sclerites have complementary geometry and muscle scars used to reconstruct a sessile bivalved animal.
Articulation and valve homology are reconstructions, not a preserved whole organism or settled stem topology.
claim:event:micrina-bivalved-reconstructionKutorgina chengjiangensis preserves an early spirolophe, digestive tract and pedicle within paired valves.
Direct anatomy informs comparison but does not make Kutorgina the ancestor of living rhynchonelliformeans.
claim:event:kutorgina-soft-tissue-anatomyThe Lingula genome, staged transcriptomes and shell proteome separate shared components from lineage-specific phosphate-shell proteins.
Shared genes do not imply shell identity, vertebrate bone homology or morphological stasis through the fossil record.
claim:event:lingula-genome-biomineralizationYuganotheca combines paired agglutinated valves, a horseshoe lophophore, a bipartite tube and a long pedicle.
COL26.8 routes 159,801 accepted living names here; that naming coverage cannot resolve this fossil mosaic or turn thirteen dossiers into an ancestor series.
claim:event:yuganotheca-tubular-lophophorate