Animalscaretips
: any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (such as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell broadly : shellfish.
- What are Mollusca organisms?
- What does a Mollusca eat?
- What are the 5 main classes of Mollusca?
- Where are Mollusca found?
- Who discovered Mollusca?
- What are the 6 molluscs?
- How do Mollusca reproduce?
- What is a mollusk look like?
- How is a mollusk born?
- What are the 3 types of mollusk?
- What eats a mollusk?
- How long can a mollusk live out of water?
- Do molluscs feel pain?
- What are characteristics of Mollusca?
What are Mollusca organisms?
The phylum Mollusca is the second-largest animal phylum, with over 100,000 species. The molluscs include many familiar animals, including clams, snails, slugs, and squid, as well as some less familiar animals, like tusk shells and chitons (Fig. 3.51 A). ... Many of their shells are highly valued by collectors.
What does a Mollusca eat?
Most molluscs are herbivorous, grazing on algae or filter feeders. For those grazing, two feeding strategies are predominant. Some feed on microscopic, filamentous algae, often using their radula as a 'rake' to comb up filaments from the sea floor.
What are the 5 main classes of Mollusca?
The Phylum Mollusca consist of 8 classes: 1) the Monoplacophora discovered in 1977; 2) the worm-like Aplacophora or solenogasters of the deep sea; 3) the also worm-like Caudofoveata; 4) the Polyplacophora, or chitons; 5) the Pelecypoda or bivalves; 6) the Gastropoda or snails; 7) the Scaphopoda, or tusk shells; and 8) ...
Where are Mollusca found?
Most mollusks are marine animals that live in habitats from shallow coastal areas to deep waters. Most stay within the sediments at the bottom of water bodies, although a few—such as cephalopods—are free swimming.
Who discovered Mollusca?
One of these will form the subject of the present volume, commonly known by the name of Mollusca; a term invented by the illustrious Cuvier, from the word mollis (soft), and evidently suggested by the softness of their boneless bodies.
What are the 6 molluscs?
Class Gastropoda – snails, slugs, limpets, whelks, conchs, periwinkles, etc. Class Bivalvia – clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, cockles, shipworms, etc. The Class Scaphopoda contains about 400 species of molluscs called tooth or tusk shells, all of which are marine.
How do Mollusca reproduce?
Mollusks are primarily of separate sexes, and the reproductive organs (gonads) are simple. ... Most reproduction, however, is by sexual means. Eggs and sperm are released into the water by members of some (primitive) species, and fertilization occurs there.
What is a mollusk look like?
In general, mollusks have 3 body regions: a head, a visceral mass, and a "foot." The head contains the sense organs and "brain," while the visceral mass contains the internal organs. ... Mollusks usually have a shell (although some do not). Mollusks also have an extension of the body wall called the mantle.
How is a mollusk born?
HOW DO MOLLUSKS REPRODUCE? Mollusks reproduce sexually. Slugs and snails are hermaphrodites (possessing both male and female organs), but they must still mate to fertilize their eggs. Most aquatic mollusks lay eggs that hatch into small, free-swimming larvae called veliger.
What are the 3 types of mollusk?
The three major groups of mollusks are gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods (SEF ul o pods). The largest group is the gastropods. These are mollusks like snails and slugs that have just one shell or no shell at all. Gastropods creep along on their broad foot.
What eats a mollusk?
Vertebrate predators of snails and slugs include shrews, mice, squirrels, and other small mammals; salamanders, toads and turtles, including the uncommon Blandings Turtle Emydoidea blandingii; and birds, especially ground-foragers such as thrushes, grouse, blackbirds, and wild turkey.
How long can a mollusk live out of water?
They can also attach to aquatic plants. Adult mussels can survive out of water – less than five days in dry conditions, but up to 21 days in very wet conditions (such as inside dock/lift pipes).
Do molluscs feel pain?
After discussing this framework in detail, we conclude that molluscs are incapable of feeling pain since the nervous system of molluscs (unlike humans) lacks the neural architecture required to implement the requisite computations defined within this framework.
What are characteristics of Mollusca?
Molluscs (also know as mollusks) are soft-bodied, bilaterally symmetrical, segmented, coelomate animals; usually shelled having a mantle, ventral foot, anterior head, and a dorsal visceral mass.
