This may or may not apply to the Mollusca, however the case
of the panda bear is of interest.
 
The panda, by its phenotype, sure looks like a bear but its
chromosomal count is far greater. When the time was taken
to actually quantify the difference, it turned out that the
panda has twice as many chromosomes as your normal Ursa.
 
Closer study showed that, in fact, the chromosomes of the
panda were nearly identical to the Ursa except that they
had broken at the centomeres. An enterprising worker actually
took a karotype of each and found the matching pairs of the
panda's which had very similar chromosomes in the Ursa.
 
Does stuff like this happen among, let's say, the cowries?
Who knows? But if it does, WOW!
 
Aloha,
 
Bob Dayle (a.k.a. makuabob)
 
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