SCIENCE LAB SCENICS : PUNKISH EVOLUTION [2]

 

430 MILLION B.S.W. [ Before Sid Vicious ] -spiky-haired mollusks rocked the scene.

Punk and Emo's Hot Topic-worthy spikes set them apart from other fossils from the  aculiferan branch of the mollusk family.

'' We don't know much about aculiferans, and it's unusual to find out we've suddenly got two, '' Dr. Sutton said.

Stewart Edie, the curator of fossil bivalves at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, said that Punk and Emo's appearances shook up a long-held understanding of how mollusks evolved.

Scientists had thought that the group of mollusks containing snails, clams and cephalopods '' saw all of the evolutionary action, '' said Dr. Edie, who was not involved with the discovery.

'' And the major other group, the aculiferans, were considerably less adventurous.''

But Punk and Emo '' buck that trend,'' he said. [ Kate Golembiewski ]