Acaenoplax

Acaenoplax
Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: incertae sedis
Family: Heloplacidae
Genus: Acaenoplax
Species:
A. hayae
Binomial name
Acaenoplax hayae
Sutton et al, 2001

Acaenoplax is an extinct worm-shaped mollusc known from the Coalbrookdale Formation of Herefordshire, England. It lived in the Silurian period. It was a couple of centimetres long and half a centimetre wide, and comprises serially repeated units with seven or eight shells, and rings of 'spines'.

Some of its characters are reminiscent of the polychaete worms, and the character combinations do not place it obviously in the stem of any modern mollusc group, but although it was originally interpreted as a polychaete, this position is untenable for a number of reasons.