522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
yes, we have made still another change in the classification! We know 
now that the monoplacophorans are no¢ gastropods and—even more 
important—are not chitons, either. How are we to represent this in 
our classification? We will erect a brand new class, the class Mono- 
placophora, the first new class to be erected since 1876, when the 
chitons were separated from the gastropods. The new classification 
will then look like the illustration shown on figure 11. 
Thus, the work of a variety of scientists—a discovery off the coast 
of Costa Rica, the study of blood types, and the examination of ob- 
secure fossils—have wrought major changes in the classification, and 
by so doing have moved man toward a better understanding of the 
great stream of life. 
Ficure 12.—The astonishing recovery of a living monoplacophoran by the Galathea Ex- 
pedition in 1951 (bottom view above) gave confirmation to the paleontologists’ hypothet- 
ical reconstruction. 
