Kulindroplax settles a 20-year-long dispute about the
phylogeny of mollusks, namely the relationship of the worm-like, carnivorous
Aplacophora within the group, in particular their relationship to the
Polyplacophora. Including
Kulindroplax in a
phylogenetic matrix with other mollusks and mollusk-like fossil taxa allows to consistently resolve Aculifera as a sister group to
Conchifera, in all variants of the analysis, thus bringing the fossil record in line with the recent molecular evidence. While other fossil taxa like
Acaenoplax and
Phthipodochiton showed intermediate features between aplacophorans and polyplacophorans, no unambiguous fossil with an aplacophoran-like body and a polyplacophoran-like shell has been found before
Kulindroplax. Below is a
cladogram of mollusk phylogeny according to Sutton
et al., 2012.
Taxa marked with † are
extinct. ==References==