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) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com