Neopilina is a genus of monoplacophorans, primitive marine mollusks with a simple, limpet-like shell and, unusually among living mollusks, a body plan showing signs of segmentation. The genus is significant to zoology because its first described living species was dredged from the deep sea off Mexico in 1952, proving that monoplacophorans, previously known only from fossils and long presumed extinct, still survive today. Members of the genus live at great ocean depths, generally too deep for casual observation, which helps explain why the group went undetected as a living lineage for so long.
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