PHYLUM

MOLLUSCA
“soft-bodied invertebrate animal, usually with
an external shell"

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Phylum Mollusca
from French mollusque, which originated from the Latin molluscus, from
mollis, soft
• The phylum Mollusca is the second-largest animal phylum, with over
100,000 species.
• The mollusks include many familiar animals, including clams, snails,
slugs, and squid, as well as some less familiar animals, like tusk
shells and chitons.
• Mollusks are found in nearly all freshwater and marine
environments, and some are found also on land.
• A slug, a snail, a clam, and a squid do not look alike, but they are all
molluscs. Although there is no single feature that all molluscs
possess, four features are so common in molluscs that they are used
to distinguish them from organisms in other phyla: 2
 • All molluscs have a specialized foot used in digging, grasping, or creeping.
The foot is a muscular organ modified into different forms in different
molluscan classes

Red-flecked mopalia Lettuce sea slug (Elysia Razor clam (Ensis sp.; Bigfin reef squid
chiton (Mopalia crispata; class class Bivalvia) (Sepioteuthis lessoniana;
spectabilis; class Gastropoda) class Cephalopoda)
Polyplacophora)

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• Molluscs have a mantle or mass of soft flesh that covers the soft body and
encloses the internal organs. In many species, the mantle produces a hard shell.
Not all molluscs produce a shell.
• The mantle is a layer of tissue that lies between the shell and the body. It secretes
calcium carbonate to form the shell. It forms a cavity, called the mantle cavity,
between the mantle and the body. The mantle cavity pumps water for filter feeding.

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• Many molluscs have a radula, which, in most species, is a rasp-like scraping
organ used in feeding. The word derives from the Latin root prefix radul-
meaning scraper. Not all molluscs have a radula, but nothing like it is found in
any other group of organisms. Bivalve molluscs lack a radula.

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• The foot is a muscular organ found in all molluscs. Polyplacophorans
(chitons) and gastropods have a single flat foot used for crawling. Some
bivalves, such as clams, have a paddle-shaped foot adapted for digging
into soft sediments.

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• Molluscs breathe with gills called ctenidia that sit in a cavity between the
mantle and body mass. In some molluscs, most notably bivalves like
oysters and mussels, the ctenidia are also used as filter feeding apparatus
to strain particulate food from the water.

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There are four major groups within the
phylum Mollusca:
1.Class Polyplacophora consists of chitons, snail-like molluscs with
eight-part overlapping scale shells.
2.Class Gastropoda are true snails and. They represent the most diverse
class within phylum Mollusca with 60,000 to 80,000 extant species in
marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats.
3.Class Bivalvia are molluscs with hinged two-part shells. Examples
include clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops.
4.Class Cephalopoda are molluscs with large heads, large eyes, and
grasping tentacles. Examples include octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and
nautiloids.
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There are four major groups within the
phylum Mollusca:
• Loki’s lined chiton (Tonicella lokii; • Blue dragon sea slug (Glaucus
Class Polyplacophora) atlanticus); class Gastropoda)

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There are four major groups within the
phylum Mollusca:
• Cockle shells (class Bivalvia) • Bigfin reef squid (Sepioteuthis
lessoniana; class Cephalopoda)

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Class Polyplacophora
comes from the words poly- (many), plako- (tablet), and -phoros (bearing), a
reference to the chiton's eight shell plates.

• Chitons (Polyplacophora) are basal relative to other extant molluscs Their

soft bodies are covered with a series of eight shell plates. The joints
between these shell plates enable to chitons to roll up for protection.
Chitons are mobile and contract their muscular foot in waves to move
about. The primarily herbivorous chitons have a well-developed radula.
Their nervous system is a series of ladder-like nerves and only a few
species have poorly developed ganglia. Chitons are found only marine
environments. They are most commonly found in tide pools and rocky
intertidal zones. Chitons can tolerate the harsh conditions of these habitats
where ocean and land meet.
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 Lined chiton (Tonicella lineata) Wood chiton (Mopalia lignosa)

Butterfly chiton (Cryptoconchus porosus) Underside of gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri)

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 Class Gastropoda
- from the Greek root words gastro meaning stomach and pod meaning foot
- a reference to the fact that the animal's "foot" is positioned below its guts

• Gastropods are the most diverse group of molluscs. The ones we usually think of
are snails and slugs. Most gastropods have a calcareous shell protecting the soft-
bodied animal inside. Some gastropods, such as sea slugs, sea hares, and garden
slugs, lack a shell or have a reduced shell buried in the folds of their mantle. Most
creep about on a flattened foot, but some swim, using extended folds of their
mantle as fins. Most snails and terrestrial slugs are herbivorous. They use their
radula to scrape algae from surfaces or to pierce plant parts. For this reason,
gardeners consider snails and slugs to be pests. Some gastropods are carnivores,
stalking other snails, worms, and fish for food. The colorful and striking
nudibranchs contain many carnivorous specialists. Many nudibranchs feed on only
one type of sponge; their body coloration and their eggs are patterned to blend in
with their prey. Other gastropods use their radula and acidic secretions to bore
holes in shells and prey on other molluscs. 13
Common limpets (Patella vulgata) Red-lined bubble snail (Bullina lineata)

 An aeolid nudibranch Giant East African land snail (Achatina fulica)14
Class Bivalvia
derived from the Latin bis, meaning "two", and valvae, meaning "leaves
of a door

• The bivalve molluscs get their name from the two door-like valves or
shells that make up their exoskeleton. Foot size varies among marine
bivalves. Clams have a muscular hatchet-shaped foot for moving
about and for burrowing in mud or sand (Fig. 3.62). By contrast, an
oyster’s or a mussel’s foot is small because these animals attach
themselves to hard objects early in life and do not move around.
Scallops don’t use their small foot to move around either. They swim
in short bursts by jet propulsion, clapping their shells together and
forcing water out the rim.
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Hard-shell clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) prepared for
raw consumption with one shell removed

Atlantic bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) California mussels (Mytilus californianus) with different
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species of barnacles and gastropod snails
Class Cephalopoda
(from the Greek root word cephal- meaning head and pod meaning
foot)
• The cephalopods are molluscs with large heads and tentacles. Examples
of cephalopod molluscs include squid, octopus, cuttlefish, and nautilus .
The foot in this group has specialized by dividing into arms that are
attached to the head, thus the name cephalopod, meaning head-foot. Like
other molluscs, cephalopods have a mantle and mantle cavity that houses
the respiratory ctenidia. The mantle cavity is also used to take in and
rapidly expel water to facilitate the jet propulsion swimming mode of
most cephalopods. When the mantle closes forcefully, seawater ejected
through the siphon propels the animal in short bursts.

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Caribbean reef squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) The coconut octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus)

Cuttlefish (Sepia sp.) Palau nautilus (Nautlius belauensis) 18