“…The presence of a phosphonolipid was first found by Rouser et al (1963) in the sea anem one Anthopleura elegantissima as a sphingolipid ceramide aminoethylphosphonate. The same lipid, apart from its existence in cnidaria (Joseph, 1979;Nakhel, 1988), along with ceramide iV-methyl-aminoethylphosphonate, is widely distributed in molluscs (Hori et al, 1969;M atsubara, 1975;Joseph, 1982;Hori and sugita, 1984;Stavrakakis et al, 1989;M at subara et al, 1990;Dembitsky et al, 1992). Also, a new type of sphingophosphonolipids, aminoalkylphosphonyl cerebrosides, has been found in marine molluscs (Araki et al, 1991;Yamaguchi et al, 1992;M atsubara and Hayashi, 1993).…”