ABSTRACT
Largely because of their unique shell morphology, they have long been recognised as a different group. The name Scaphopoda is commonly interpreted as ‘shovel-footed’, a reference to the morphology of the foot of the animals. Some of the disagreement regarding conchiferan phylogeny revolves around the placement of the Scaphopoda on the molluscan tree. A comparison of the anatomical attributes of both protobranch bivalves and scaphopods was carried out by Simone who found support for Diasoma, although few outgroups were included in his analysis. Scaphopod shell colour is usually white or yellowish to orange, but a few species are green or brown. Many species have transparent or semi-transparent shells and can be identified to sex based on visible gonads. Scaphopods are found in all the major oceans where they are infaunal, living in offshore sediments and rarely intertidally. They are also known from the deep sea and are recorded to around 6,000 metres.
