Fire rained down from sky
And many had to die.
The first extinction came
With death's devouring flame.
For years in heaven's height
Hengweh and Mithra fight.
They wrestled in the air
And blocked sun's light so fair.
The Archaeocyathids fell,
Their cities rang death's knell.
The Trilobites and more—
Brachiopods by the score—
And Hyoliths barely
Survived that calamity.
The Botomian time had passed,
Its glory could not last.
Then Mithra spoke these words
To one who serves:
"Wiwaxius, I choose thee
To set the world life free.
Restore what has been lost
And count extinction's cost.
Protect us from the doom
That fills up every room."
Wiwaxius begat two sons:
Molluscus when day begun
And Kamptos, poor and weak,
Who had no strength to seek
Great things or mighty deeds.
He built what barely feeds
A small and brainless state—
A kingdom with no fate.
But Molluscus bore many
Sons, more than any
Other patriarch could claim.
Eldest was Testar's name.
Testar the sixteen-plated
Built shell sophisticated.
A great thick shell he made
Of valves in organized parade.
Sixteen valves in all:
Eight large and eight small.
Eight upon the right
And eight upon the left so bright.
His brothers had no care
For building anywhere.
Bad work ethics they possessed,
Never did their best.
Solenos just drank the blood
Of sons through ocean's flood:
Ctenofer and Cnider's line
Became his bloody wine.
And Caudos ate his fill
Of Foramer at will.
He cared not for the art
Of building any part.
But Testar bore two sons:
Chiton when day begun
And Conchifer Verticus,
Both builders glorious.
Chiton Horizontus
Unified like kratos
His shells in horizontal row:
Eight shells in neat tableau.
He became the ancestor
Of chitons, protector
With eight shells side by side
Along his lengthy hide.
The sons of Chiton roll
When threatened from their goal.
But they aren't very wise—
They gave up brain's prize
Long ago in time past,
Their simple ways held fast.
Intelligence they traded
For armor that's not faded.
Conchifer Verticus
Made his way glorious
By unifying vertical
His shells so beautiful.
A shell upon his left,
A shell upon his right—
His vertical bereft
Of horizontal sight.
Conchifer bore two more:
Bivos to explore
The hinged shell's way,
And Monos every day.
Bivos kept his hinged design
While Monos made combine
His shells into just one—
Two paths when day begun.
Bivos laid in sand
Throughout the fertile land
And fished food from the sea
Most gracefully.
When threatened he would close
His shells against his foes.
Together they would shut
Like door without a cut.
His children came to lay
Upon their sides each day.
Soon they looked the same
As Brachios' great name.
They became Bivalves true:
Clams and mussels too,
Oysters in their beds
With protective heads.
The sons of Monos first
Found little luck, dispersed
Without much success.
But time would bless
Their patient, single shell.
Monoplacophores dwell
With nothing but one plate
As their identifying trait.
But Carlos the curly one,
Grandson when day begun,
Had ideas quite different
From others' management.
He walked across the seas
Exploring as he'd please,
Discovering countless things
That wonder always brings.
He bore two sons of fame:
Gastropus was the name
Of one, and Digitos
The other, strong and close.
Gastropus twisted round
Into spiral profound.
His shell developed might
Through this spiraling sight.
He became ancestor
Of snails, protector
With shells that coil and turn
In patterns we discern.
Each generation more
Would curl than those before
And grow in strength each day
Through their spiraling way.
Today his distant sons
Still coil when day begun.
From garden snail so small
To conch shells standing tall.
Digitos made his foot
Into tentacles suit
For different kind of life
Through joy and through strife.
Digitos bore two sons:
Cephalopus when begun
The day, and Scaphopus,
Not quite so glorious.
Cephalopus studied long
And made his body strong
Through learning how to fly
With buoyancy on high.
He built a coiling shell
With chambers that would dwell
With gas for floating light
Through day and through the night.
Through this he learned to soar
Above the ocean floor.
He even built with care
Circulatory system there
Like Annelids and those
Of Chordates who propose
That closed systems are best
For meeting every test.
His mind grew sharp and keen,
The brightest ever seen
Among the mollusks all
Who answer ocean's call.
But Scaphopus lived lazy
In the ground so hazy.
He became ancestor
Of tusk shells, protector
Of nothing but his ease.
Simple creatures please
Themselves with brainless ways,
Living all their days
Underground they dwell
Within their tusk-like shell.
They prey on Foramer's sons
When hunting time begun.
Through this story we learn
How small choices earn
Great consequences wide
Across time's flowing tide.
The sons of Molluscus grew
And flourished, spreading through
The world in every way,
Taking roles each day
That others could not fill.
Through strength of mind and will
They rose from extinction's
Fire to distinctions
Great and glorious.
Molluscus victorious
Showed how from single start
Many forms depart
To fill each niche and place
With their unique grace.
From simple shell began
Evolution's great plan
That led to snails that crawl
And squids that enthrall
With intelligence bright
And bivalves' filtering sight.
The first extinction's flame
Could not destroy the name
Of those who build with care
Their future everywhere.
When fire rained from sky
And many had to die,
The builders who remained
Were those who had sustained
Their vision through the dark
And left their lasting mark
On world that needed those
Who from destruction rose.
Wiwaxius heard the call
To save life from the fall
And through his chosen sons
New chapters begun
Of life upon the earth
That celebrates the worth
Of building something strong
That will endure so long.
From Testar's sixteen plates
To forms that time creates
In endless variety,
The mollusks' piety
To building shows the way
That life can win the day
Against extinction's threat
When builders' skills are set
To work with patient art
That plays the vital part
In restoration's song
That makes the weak grow strong.
In every shell we see
Upon the sand so free,
Remember Molluscus' choice
To lift up building's voice
Above destruction's roar
And open up the door
To future filled with hope
Where builders help life cope
With challenges that come
Until the final sum
Of all their work is done
Beneath the shining sun.
The first extinction taught
That those who come to naught
Are those who do not build
But let their dreams be stilled.
But those who build with care
Will flourish everywhere
And fill the world with forms
That weather all life's storms.
From simplest shell's start
To cephalopod's art
Of swimming through the sea
With brain's complexity,
The mollusks show the way
That builders win the day
When extinction's fire
Would end life's choir.
Their shells protect and serve
Their forms with every curve
Designed for life's demands
In seas and on the lands.
So honor Molluscus' name
And his enduring fame
As father of the line
That shows building's divine
Power to restore
What was lost before
And make the world anew
With forms both strong and true.