Mollusca

By: Miranda & Ashley :]

Mollusca Characteristics

• Bilaterally symmetrical. • Body has more than two cell layers, tissues and organs. • Body without cavity. • Body possesses a through gut with mouth and anus. • Body monomeric and highly variable in form, may

possess a dorsal or lateral shells of protein and calcareous spicules.

• Has a nervous system with a circum-oesophagal ring, ganglia and paired nerve chords.

Ramel, Gordon. "The Molluscs (Phylum Mollusca)." The Earth Life Web. Web. 04 Apr. 2011. <http://www.earthlife.net/inverts/mollusca.html>.

Mollusk Facts

• Mollusks eat a wide range of material.

• Mollusks live in most environments.

• After the Arthropods the Molluscs are the most successful of the animal phyla in terms of numbers of species.

• There are about 110,000 species known to science most of which are marine.

Bivalvia• Bivalves have shells made up of 2 asymmetrically rounded halves

called valves that are mirror images of each other • They need fresh water to breathe, reproduce and eat• Most species burrow into mud and sand.• Most bivalves eat bits of plants and animals floating in the water. • A few species collect food from the bottom• Others absorb nutrients directly into their bodies

http://animals.jrank.org/pages/1908/Bivalves-Bivalvia.htmlBivalves: Bivalvia - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And

Reproduction, Bivalves And People, Conservation Status, Black-lipped Pearl Oyster (pinctada Margaritifera): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET

Giant Clam(Bivalvia)

Phylum:Mollusca

Class:Bivalvia

Subclass:Heterodonta

Order: incertae sedis

Family:Tridacninae

Genus:Tridacna

Species:T. gigas

Giant Clam• The Giant Clam is the largest immobile mollusc in the world, reaching up to

6 feet in length.• Once a Giant Clam settles somewhere it stays there for the rest of its life.• They live in tropical waters, and feed on plant and animal matter.• Giant clams are eaten by humans • Giant clams generally have bad interaction with humans because humans

decrease the clam population with hunting. :]• Human pollution affects Giant Clams because humans pollute the water

they live in• They are endangered• They are hunted by humans for a muscle that is eaten in many countries.• Marine Parks throughout the world are working to protect clams.

• Clam Video :]•

"Giant Clam." True Wild Life True Wild Life. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. Source

Gastropods• Gastropods are the largest variety of mollusks• There are over 90,000 different types of Gastropods.• They occupy every habitat on earth

• It is the only class to contain species that have ventured

permanently on to land.  • Over 15,000 fossil forms have been described and over

90,000 species exist today • Gastropods exhibit the least change from the ancestral

molluscan plan of all the molluscs.

G. Atlanticus Kingdom:AnimaliaPhylum:MolluscaClass:GastropodaSuperfamily:AeolidioidaFamily:GlaucidaeGenus:Glaucus

Common Name: Nudibranch

Glaucus Atlanticus

• A species of medium-sized blue sea slug

• They are between 5 and 8 centimeters in length

• They live Tropical waters

• They prey on other larger pelagic organisms like the dangerously venomous Portuguese man o’ war

• If there is no food around, they will resort to cannibalism and eat other G. Atlanticus

• They float upside down

• They are not eaten by humans

• Human pollution affects the water they live in

• They are not endangered

• Humans havent really taken any steps to protect them

• They are not hunted by humans

• Human interaction is neutral.

Cephalopods

• Cephalopods are found in all of the worlds oceans

• Cephalopods have 3 hearts, and blue blood• All species of cephalopods are marine• There are 800 living types• They grow fast, reproduce, and die over a short

period of time.• They were once one of the dominant life forms

of the oceans.

Giant SquaidArchiteuthis dux

Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: Mollusca

Class: CephalopodaOrder: Teuthida

Suborder: OegopsinaFamily: Architeuthidae

Genus: ArchiteuthisSpecies: Architeuthis dux

Geographic Range

Giant Squid Facts• Giant squids can grow to over 26 feet.• Giant squid eat hoki fish (the same fish used in McDonalds filet o fish

sandwiches. Yum:]), and shrimp• They are the largest invertebrate on earth• They have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, measuring 10 inches in

diameter • They move with fins, and use their funnel as a propulsion system, drawing

water main part of the body, and forcing it out the back• Giant squid carcasses have been found in all the worlds oceans• Giant squids are usually not eaten by humans, but it porbably is possible.• Because they live where humans rarely go, its hard to tell whether they are

endangered or not.• There are no protection efforts for the giant squid

Resources :]

• Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2008. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed March 25, 2011 at http://animaldiversity.org.

• Postlethwait, John H., and Janet L. Hopson. Modern Biology. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2006. Print.