Colleplax – a structure present in
chileate brachiopods
Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the fron ...
.
It is a triangular plate in the umbonal region of the ventral valve, covering an area that is otherwise externally exposed through the resorption of a part of the ventral valve.
This aperture is supposed to have been covered by adhesive tissue,
but no similar structure exists in any living brachiopod, so other interpretations have also been proposed.
References
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Brachiopods