Evolutionary History

P. deltoides is a member of the Mollusca phylum along with over 50,000 extant species including the clams, snails, slugs, and octopus among many others (Ruppert et al., 2004). The molluscs are such a large and broad taxon that they inhabit any number of environmental niches from in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments.

There are some questions on the phylogeny of the molluscs in generally due to morphological classification in the past and new information from genetic trees. Plebidonax deltoides itself has somewhat recently had a potential change of name from Donax deltoides as posed by Lamprell and White head in 1992. This has still not been fully accepted and much of the information accessible on the species is still referred to as being a member of the Donax genus.