Phylum Mollusca

Mrs. Adora G. Ilac,RN,MSBio

Mollusks
Most are marine, some inhabit
freshwater
More than 150,000 known species
Soft-bodied animals (from L.
molluscus, soft) but most are
protected by a hard shell made of
calcium carbonate
Some have reduced shells (slugs,
squids, and octopuses) most of which
are internal, or they have lost their

VISCERAL MASS

Coelom
Kidney

Heart

Mollusk
s

Reproductive
organs
Digestive
tract

MANTLE
Shell
Mantle
cavity

RADULA

Anus

Gill

Mouth

FOOT

Nerve
cords

All have
similar body
plan
3 main
parts
-Muscular
foot
-Visceral

VISCERAL MASS

Coelom
Kidney

Heart

Reproductive
organs
Digestive
tract

MANTLE
Shell
Mantle
cavity

RADULA

Anus

Gill

Mouth

FOOT

Nerve
cords

3 main
parts
Muscular
foot
- For
movement
Visceral
mass
- Containing
most of the
internal
organs
Mantle
-A fold of

Mollusks
In many, the mantle extends beyond
the visceral mass, producing a waterfilled chamber, the mantle cavity
Many feed by using a straplike
rasping organ called radula to scrape
up food
Have separate sexes, with gonads
(ovaries or testes) located in the
visceral mass
Snails are hermaphrodites

Major Classes of Phylum

Mollusca
Class and Examples Main Characteristics
Polyplacophora
(chitons)

Marine; shells with eight plates; foot

used for locomotion; head reduced

Gastropoda (snails,
slugs)

Marine, freshwater, or terrestrial;

asymmetric body, usually with a coiled
shell; shell reduced or absent in some;
foot for locomotion; radula present

Bivalvia (clams,
mussels, scallops,
oysters)

Marine and freshwater, flattened shell

with two valves; head reduced; paired
gills; most are filter-feeders; mantle
forms siphons

Cephalalopoda
(squids, octupuses,
chambered
nautiluses)

Marine; head surrounded by grasping

tentacles, usually with suckers; shell
external, internal, or absent; mouth
with or without radula; locomotion by
jet propulsion using siphon made from
mantle

Class Polyplacophora

Chitons
Marine animals with oval shapes
Shells divided into eight dorsal plates
Cling to rocks along the shore during
low tide
The foot acts as a suction cup, grips
the rock
Grazers that use radula to cut and
ingest algae

Class Gastropoda
The largest of the molluscan classes
Has more than 40,000 living species
Marine, but there are freshwater
species
Most distinctive characteristics:
torsion

Torsion
During embryonic
development, an
asymmetrical
muscle forms, and
contraction of the
muscle and uneven
growth causes the
visceral mass to
rotate up to 1800,
so that the anus
and mantle cavity
are places above
the head in the

Advantage is to
place the visceral
mass and heavy
shell more
centrally over the
snails body

Class Gastropoda

Are protected by single, spiraled shells

into which the animals can retreat when
threatened
Shell is often conical, but abalones are
limpets have somewhat flattened shells
Many have distinct heads with eyes at
the tips of tentacles
Most used their radula to graze on algae
or plant materials
Some are predators, and radula is
modified for boring holes in the shells of

Class Gastropoda
In one group, the cone snails, the teeth of
the radula form separate poison darts,
which penetrate prey, including fishes
Are among the few invertebrate groups to
have successfully populated the land
Terrestrial snails lack the gills, and instead
the lining of mantle cavity functions as a
lung, exchanging respiratory gases with
the air

Class Bivalvia
Shells divided into two halves
Two parts of the shell are hinged at
the mid-dorsal line, and a powerful
adductor muscles draw the two
halves tightly together to protect the
soft-bodied animal
When the shell is open, the bivalve
may extend its hatchet-shaped foot
for digging or anchoring

Class Bivalvia
Mantle cavity
contain gills that
are used for
feeding as well as
gas exchange
Most are
suspension-feeders
No distinct head,
and the radula is
lost

Mouth

Radula

Class Cephalopoda
Are built for speed, an adaptations
that fits their carnivorous diet
Use beaklike jaws to bite their prey;
then they inject poison to immobilize
the victim
Mouth is at the center of several long
tentacles
Mantle covers the visceral mass, but
the shell is reduced and internal
(squids) or missing altogether (many

Class Cephalopoda
The only mollusks with a closed
circulatory system
Have well-developed nervous system
with a complex brain
Have well-developed sense organs
Shelled cephalopods called
ammonites, some of them as large
as truck tires, were the dominant
invertebrate predators of the seas for
hundreds of million years until their
disappearance during mass