Macroscenella (Mollusca) from the Middle Ordovician of Wisconsin—a reinterpretation and reassignment

Description of two new specimens of Macroscenella superba (Billings) provides additional data on this rare, poorly known Paleozoic genus. Macroscenella was considered first to be a gastropod, then a monoplacophoran, and finally a coelenterate. Chondrophorine affinities for this form cannot be totally ruled out, but the new specimens increase the probability that it is a mollusk. If so, Macroscenella is more likely a patellacean gastropod than a member of any other group of the Mollusca, though evidence for placement within the Mollusca is equivocal; the interior of the specimens is not exposed and musculature is unknown. If the integument was a shell, it was thin.