sb. pl. Zool. [mod. L., neuter plural of prec.] A division of Mollusks: the Lamellibranchiata or ordinary bivalves, as the Oyster, etc. As originally constituted by Lamarck, it included also the Brachiopoda.
By Gegenbaur used to include also the Gastropoda with the exception of the Placophora or Chitons.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 72. The Conchifera never crawl on a ventral disk or foot like many of the Mollusca.
1851. Richardson, Geol., viii. 233. The Conchifera are all enclosed in bivalved shells articulated together in a hinge-like manner … the one valve covers the right, and the other the left side of the body; a position the reverse of that of the brachiopods, where one valve is dorsal and the other ventral.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 47. The dextral valve of the conchifera.
