Mollusca
Diversity
About 80% of all known mollusc species are gastropods.
There are about 93,000 named mollusc species, which include 23% of all named marine organisms. Molluscs are second only to arthropods in numbers of living animal species far behind the arthropods’ 1,113,000 but well ahead of chordates’ 52,000.:Front endpaper 1 It has been estimated that there are about 200,000 living species in total, and 70,000 fossil species, although the total number of mollusc species that ever existed, whether or not preserved, must be many times greater than the number alive today.
Molluscs have more varied forms than any other animal phylum snails and other gastropods, clams and other bivalves, squids and other cephalopods, and other lesser-known but similarly distinctive sub-groups. The majority of species still live in the oceans, from the seashores to the abyssal zone, but some are significant members of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. They are extremely diverse in tropical and temperate regions but can be found at all latitudes. About 80% of all known mollusc species are gastropods. Cephalopoda such as squid, cuttlefish and octopus are among the most neurologically-advanced of all invertebrates. The giant squid, which until recently had not been observed alive in its adult form, is one of the largest invertebrates. However a recently-caught specimen of the colossal squid, 10 metres (33 ft) long and weighing 500 kilograms (0.49 LT; 0.55 ST), may have overtaken it.
Freshwater and terrestrial molluscs appear exceptionally vulnerable to extinction. Estimates of the numbers of non-marine molluscs vary widely, partly because many regions have not been thoroughly surveyed and there is a shortage of specialists in classifying these animals. However, in 2004 the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species included nearly 2,000 endangered non-marine molluscs. For comparison, the great majority of molluscs species are marine but only 41 of these appeared on the 2004 Red List. 42% of recorded extinctions since 1500 involved molluscs, almost entirely non-marine.
Definition
The word mollusc is derived from the French mollusque, which originated from the Latin molluscus, from mollis, soft. Molluscus was itself an adaptation of Aristotle’s , “the soft things”, which he applied to cuttlefish. The scientific study of molluscs is known as malacology.
Molluscs have developed such a varied range of body structures that it is difficult to find synapomorphies (defining characteristics) that apply to all modern groups. The following are present in all modern molluscs:
The dorsal part of the body wall is a mantle which secretes calcareous spicules, plates or shells. It overlaps the body with enough spare room to form a mantle cavity.
The anus and genitals open into the mantle cavity.
There are at least two pairs of main nerve cords (three in bivalves:367403)
Other characteristics that commonly appear in textbooks have significant exceptions:
Class
Characteristic
Aplacophora:291292
Polyplacophora:292298
Monoplacophora:298300
Gastropoda
Cephalopoda
Bivalvia
Scaphopoda
Radula, a rasping “tongue” with chitinous teeth
Absent in 20% of Neomeniomorpha
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Internal, cannot extend beyond body
Broad, muscular foot
Reduced or absent
Yes
Yes
Yes
Modified into arms
Yes
Small, only at “front” end
Dorsal concentration of internal organs (visceral mass)
Not obvious
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Large digestive ceca
No ceca in some aplacophora
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Large complex metanephridia (“kidneys”)
None
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Small, simple
A “generalized mollusc”
Further information: Mollusc shell
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8
9
10
11
12
13
14
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18
Digestive & excretory system
Circulatory & respiratory
Central nervous system
Reproductive system
1 Radula
2 Mouth
3 Shell
4 Stomach
5 Gonad
6 Heart
7 Coelom
8 Nephridium
9 Mantle
10 Mantle cavity
11 Anus
12 Gill
13 Foot
14 Hemocoel
15 Pedal nerve cord
16 Gut
17 Visceral nerve cord
18 Nerve ring
A generalized mollusc
Because of the enormous variations between groups of molluscs, many text books start the subject by describing a “generalized mollusc”, which some suggest may resemble very early molluscs and which is rather similar to modern monoplacophorans.
The generalized mollusc has a single, “limpet-like” shell on top. The shell is secreted by a mantle that covers the upper surface. The underside consists of a single muscular “foot”.
Mantle and mantle cavity
The mantle cavity is a fold in the mantle that encloses a significant amount of space. The cavity was probably at the rear in the earliest molluscs but its position now varies from group to group. The anus, a pair of osphradia (chemical sensors) in the incoming “lane”, the hindmost pair of gills and the exit openings of the nephridia (“kidneys”) and gonads (reproductive organs) are in the mantle cavity.
Shell
Main article: Mollusc shell
The mantle secretes a shell that is mainly chitin and conchiolin (a protein) hardened with calcium carbonate, except that the outermost layer is all conchiolin. Molluscs never use phosphate to construct their hard parts, with the questionable exception of Cobcrephora.
Foot
The underside consists of a muscular foot, which has adapted to different purposes in different classes.:4 The foot carries a pair of statocysts which act as balance sensors. In gastropods, it secretes mucus as a lubricant to aid movement. In forms that have only a top shell, such as limpets, the foot acts as a sucker attaching the animal to a hard surface, and the vertical muscles clamp the shell down over it; in other molluscs, the vertical muscles pull the foot and other exposed soft parts into the shell. In bivalves, the foot is adapted for burrowing into the sediment;:4 in cephalopods it is used for jet propulsion,:4 and the tentacles and arms are derived from the foot.
Multiple functions of organs
Molluscs organs are used for multiple functions. For example: the heart and nephridia (“kidneys”) are important parts of the reproductive system as well as the circulatory and excretory systems; in bivalves, the gills both “breathe” and produce a water current in the mantle cavity which serves both excretion and reproduction.
Circulation
Molluscs’ circulatory systems are mainly open. Although molluscs are coelomates, their coeloms are reduced to fairly small spaces enclosing the heart and gonads. The main body cavity is a hemocoel through which blood circulates and which encloses most of the other internal organs. The blood contains the respiratory pigment hemocyanin as an oxygen-carrier. The heart consists of one or more pairs of atria (auricles) which receive oxygenated blood from the gills and pump it to the ventricle, which pumps it into the aorta (main artery), which is fairly short and opens into the hemocoel.
The atria of the heart also function as part of the excretory system by filtering waste products out of the blood and dumping it into the coleom as urine. A pair of nephridia (“little kidneys”) to the rear of and connected to the coelom extracts any re-usable materials from the urine and dumps additional waste products into it, and then ejects it via tubes that discharge into the mantle cavity.
Respiration
Most molluscs have only one pair of gills, or even only one gill. Generally the gills are rather like feathers in shape, although some species have gills with filaments on only one side. They divide the mantle cavity so that water enters near the bottom and exits near the top. Their filaments have three kinds of cilia, one of which drives the water current through the mantle cavity, while the other two help to keep the gills clean. If the osphradia detect noxious chemicals or possibly sediment entering the mantle cavity, the gills’ cilia may stop beating until the unwelcome intrusions have ceased. Each gill has an incoming blood vessel connected to the hemocoel and an outgoing one to the heart.
Eating, digestion, and elimination
= Food
= Radula
= Odontophore “belt”
= Muscles
Snail radula at work.
Most molluscs have muscular mouths with radulae, “tongues” bearing many rows of chitinous teeth, which are replaced from the rear as they wear out. The radula primarily functions to scrape bacteria and algae off rocks. Molluscs mouths also contain glands that secrete slimy mucus, to which the food sticks. Beating cilia (tiny “hairs”) drive the mucus towards the stomach, so that the mucus forms a long string.
At the tapered rear end of the stomach and projecting slightly into the hindgut is the prostyle, a backward-pointing cone of feces and mucus, which is rotated by further cilia so that it acts as a bobbin, winding the mucus string onto itself. Before the mucus string reaches the prostyle, the acidity of the stomach makes the mucus less sticky and frees particles from it.
The particles are sorted by yet another group of cilia, which send the smaller particles, mainly minerals, to the prostyle so that eventually they are excreted, while the larger ones, mainly food, are sent to the stomach’s cecum (a pouch with no other exit) to be digested. The sorting process is by no means perfect.
Periodically, circular muscles at the hindgut’s entrance pinch off and excrete a piece of the prostyle, preventing the prostyle from growing too large. The anus is in the part of the mantle cavity that is swept by the outgoing “lane” of the current created by the gills. Carnivorous molluscs usually have simpler digestive systems.
Nervous system
Molluscs have two pairs of main nerve cords (three in bivalves) the visceral cords serving the internal organs and the pedal ones serving the foot. Both pairs run below the level of the gut, and include ganglia as local control centers in important parts of the body. Most pairs of corresponding ganglia on both sides of the body are linked by commissures (relatively large bundles of nerves). The only ganglia above the gut are the cerebral ganglia, which sit above the esophagus (gullet) and handle “messages” from and to the eyes. The pedal ganglia, which control the foot, are just below the esophagus and their commissure and connections to the cerebral ganglia encircle the esophagus in a nerve ring.
The brain, in species that have one, encircles the esophagus. Most molluscs have a head with eyes, and all have a pair of sensor-containing tentacles, also on the head, that detect chemicals, vibrations and touch.
Reproduction
Apical tuft (cilia)
Prototroch (cilia)
Stomach
Mouth
Metatroch (cilia)
Mesoderm
Anus
/// = cilia
Trochophore larva
The simplest molluscan reproductive system relies on external fertilization, but there are more complex variations. All produce eggs, from which may emerge trochophore larvae, more complex veliger larvae, or miniature adults. Two gonads sit next to the coelom that surrounds the heart and shed ova or sperm into the coleom, from which the nephridia extract them and emit them into the mantle cavity. Molluscs that use such a system remain of one sex all their lives and rely on external fertilization. Some molluscs use internal fertilization and/or are hermaphrodites, functioning as both sexes; both of these methods require more complex reproductive systems.
The most basic molluscan larva is a trochophore which is planktonic and feeds on floating food particles by using the two bands of cilia round its “equator” to sweep food into the mouth, which uses more cilia to drive them into the stomach, which uses further cilia to expel undigested remains through the anus. New tissue grows in the bands of mesoderm in the interior, so that the apical tuft and anus are pushed further apart as the animal grows. The trochophore stage is often succeeded by a veliger stage in which the prototroch, the “equatorial” band of cilia nearest the apical tuft, develops into the velum (“veil”), a pair of cilia-bearing lobes with which the larva swims. Eventually the larva sinks to the seafloor and metamorphoses into the adult form. Whilst metamorphosis is the usual state in molluscs, the cephalopods differ in exhibiting direct development: the hatchling is a ‘miniaturized’ form of the adult.
Taxonomy
Opinions vary about the number of classes of molluscs for example the table below shows eight living classes, and two extinct ones. However some authors combine the Caudofoveata and solenogasters into one class, the Aplacophora. Two of the commonly-recognized classes are known only from fossils
Class
Major organisms
Described living species
Distribution
Caudofoveata
worm-like organisms
120
seabed 2003,000 metres (6609,800 ft)
Aplacophora
solenogasters, worm-like organisms
200
seabed 2003,000 metres (6609,800 ft)
Polyplacophora
chitons
1,000
rocky tidal zone and seabed
Monoplacophora
limpet-like organisms
31
seabed 1,8007,000 metres (5,90023,000 ft); one species 200 metres (660 ft)
Gastropoda
abalone, limpets, conch, nudibranchs, sea hares, sea butterfly, snails, slugs
70,000
marine, freshwater, land
Cephalopoda
squid, octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus
900
marine
Bivalvia
clams, oysters, scallops, mussels
20,000
marine, freshwater
Scaphopoda
tusk shells
500
marine 67,000 metres (2022,970 ft)
Rostroconchia 35]
fossils; probable ancestors of bivalves
extinct
marine
Helcionelloida 36]
fossils; snail-like organisms such as Latouchella
extinct
marine
Evolution
Fossil record
There is debate about whether some Ediacaran and Early Cambrian fossils really are molluscs. Kimberella, from about 555 million years ago, has been described as “mollusc-like”, but others are unwilling to go further than “probable bilaterian”.[note 2] There is an even sharper debate about whether Wiwaxia, from about 505 million years ago, was a mollusc, and much of this centers on whether its feeding apparatus was a type of radula or more similar to that of some polychaete worms. Nicholas Butterfield, who opposes the idea that Wiwaxia was a mollusc, has written that earlier microfossils from 515 to 510 million years ago are fragments of a genuinely mollusc-like radula.
The tiny Helcionellid fossil Yochelcionella is thought to be an early mollusc
Spirally-coiled shells appear in many gastropods
However, the Helcionellids, which first appear over 540 million years ago in Early Cambrian rocks from Siberia and China, are thought to be early molluscs with rather snail-like shells. Shelled molluscs therefore predate the earliest trilobites. Although most helcionellid fossils are only a few millimeters long, specimens a few centimeters long have also been found, most with more limpet-like shapes. There have been suggestions that the tiny specimens were juveniles and the larger ones adults.
Some analyses of helcionellids concluded that these were the earliest gastropods. However other scientists are not convinced that Early Cambrian fossils show clear signs of the torsion that identifies modern gastropods twists the internal organs so that the anus lies above the head.
= Septa
= Siphuncle
Septa and siphuncle in nautiloid shell
For a long time it was thought that Volborthella, some fossils of which pre-date 530 million years ago, was a cephalopod. However discoveries of more detailed fossils showed that Volborthella shell was not secreted but built from grains of the mineral silicon dioxide (silica), and that it was not divided into a series of compartments by septa as those of fossil shelled cephalopods and the living Nautilus are. Volborthella classification is uncertain. The Late Cambrian fossil Plectronoceras is now thought to be the earliest clearly cephalopod fossil, as its shell had septa and a siphuncle, a strand of tissue that Nautilus uses to remove water from compartments that it has vacated as it grows, and which is also visible in fossil ammonite shells. However, Plectronoceras and other early cephalopods crept along the seafloor instead of swimming, as their shells contained a “ballast” of stony deposits on what is thought to be the underside and had stripes and blotches on what is thought to be the upper surface. All cephalopods with external shells except the nautiloids became extinct by the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. However, the shell-less Coleoidea (squid, octopus, cuttlefish) are abundant today.
The Early Cambrian fossils Fordilla and Pojetaia are regarded as bivalves. “Modern-looking” bivalves appeared in the Ordovician period, 488 to 443 million years ago. One bivalve group, the rudists, became major reef-builders in the Cretaceous, but became extinct in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. However, bivalves are now abundant and diverse.
Phylogeny
Lophotrochozoa
Brachiopods
Bivalves
Monoplacophorans
(“limpet-like”, “living fossils”)
Gastropods
(snails, slugs, limpets, sea hares)
Cephalopods
(nautiloids, ammonites, squid, etc.)
Scaphopods (tusk shells)
Aplacophorans
(spicule-covered, worm-like)
Polyplacophorans (chitons)
Halwaxiids
Wiwaxia
Halkieria
Orthrozanclus
Odontogriphus
A possible “family tree” of molluscs (2007). Does not include annelid worms as the analysis concentrated on fossilizable “hard” features.
The phylogeny (evolutionary “family tree”) of molluscs is a controversial subject. In addition to the debates about whether Kimberella and any of the “halwaxiids” were molluscs or closely related to molluscs, there are debates about the relationships between the classes of living molluscs. In fact some groups traditionally classifed as molluscs may have to be redefined as distinct but related.
Molluscs are generally regarded members of the Lophotrochozoa, a group defined by having trochophore larvae and, in the case of living Lophorata, a feeding structure called a lophophore. The other members of the Lophotrochozoa are the annelid worms and seven marine phyla. The diagram on the right summarizes a phylogeny presented in 2007.
Because the relationships between the members of the family tree are uncertain, it difficult to identify the features inherited from the last common ancestor of all molluscs. For example it is uncertain whether the ancestral mollusc was metameric (composed of repeating units) – if it was, that would suggest an origin from an annelid-like worm. Scientists disagree about this: Giribet and colleagues concluded in 2006 that the repetition of gills and of the foot’s retractor muscles were later developments, while in 2007 Sigwart concluded that the ancestral mollusc was metameric, and that it had a foot used for creeping and a “shell” that was mineralized. In one particular one branch of the family tree, the shell of conchiferans is thought to have evolved from the spicules (small spines) of aplacophorans; however this is difficult to reconcile with the embryological origins of spicules.
The molluscan shell appears to have originated from a mucus coating, which eventually stiffened into a cuticle. This would have been impermeable and thus forced the development of more sophisticated respiratory apparatus in the form of gills. Eventually, the cuticle would have become mineralized, using the same genetic machinery (engrailed) as most other bilaterian skeletons. The first mollusc shell almost certainly was reinforced with the mineral aragonite.
The evolutionary relationships within the molluscs are also debated, and the diagrams below show two widely-supported reconstructions:
Molluscs
Aculifera
Solenogastres
Caudofoveata
Polyplacophorans
Conchifera
Monoplacophorans
Bivalves
Scaphopods
Gastropods
Cephalopods
The “Aculifera” hypothesis
Molluscs
Solenogastres
Caudofoveata
Testaria
Polyplacophorans
Monoplacophorans
Bivalves
Scaphopods
Gastropods
Cephalopods
The “Testaria” hypothesis
However, an analysis in 2009 that used both morphological and molecular phylogenetics comparisons concluded that the molluscs are not monophyletic; in particular, that Scaphopoda and Bivalvia are both separate, monophyletic lineages unrelated to the remaining molluscan classes in other words that the traditional phylum Mollusca is polyphyletic, and that it can only be made monophyletic if scaphopods and bivalves are excluded. A 2010 analysis similarly concluded that the molluscs are not monophyletic, this time suggesting that solenogastres are more closely related to the non-molluscan taxa used as an outgroup than to other molluscs.
Relations with humans
Uses by humans
Further information: Seashell
Mollusc output in 2005
Molluscs, especially bivalves such as clams and mussels, have been an important food source since at least the advent of anatomically modern humans and this has often resulted in over-fishing. Other commonly eaten molluscs include octopuses and squids, whelks, oysters, and scallops. In 2005, China accounted for 80% of the global mollusc catch, netting almost 11,000,000 tonnes (11,000,000 LT; 12,000,000 ST). Within Europe, France remained the industry leader. Some countries regulate importation and handling of molluscs and other seafood, mainly to minimize the poison risk from toxins that accumulate in the animals.
Saltwater pearl oyster farm in Seram, Indonesia
Most molluscs that have shells can produce pearls, but only the pearls of bivalves and some gastropods whose shells are lined with nacre are valuable. The best natural pearls are produced by pearl oyster.s Pinctada margaritifera and Pinctada mertensi, which live in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. Natural pearls form when a small foreign object gets stuck between the mantle and shell.
There are two methods of culturing pearls, by inserting either “seeds” or beads into oysters. The “seed” method uses grains of ground shell from freshwater mussels, and over-harvesting for this purpose has endangered several freshwater mussel species in the southeastern USA. The pearl industry is so important in some areas that significant sums of money are spent on monitoring the health of farmed molluscs.
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I clad in Tyrian purple
Other luxury and high-status products were made from molluscs. Tyrian purple, made from the ink glands of murex shells, “… fetched its weight in silver” in the fourth-century BC, according to Theopompus. The discovery of large numbers of Murex shells on Crete suggests that the Minoans may have pioneered the extraction of “Imperial purple” during the Middle Minoan period in the 20th18th century BC, centuries before the Tyrians. Sea silk is a fine, rare and valuable fabric produced from the long silky threads (byssus) secreted by several bivalve molluscs, particularly Pinna nobilis, to attach themselves to the sea bed. Procopius, writing on the Persian wars circa 550 CE, “stated that the five hereditary satraps (governors) of Armenia who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor were given chlamys (or cloaks) made from lana pinna (Pinna “wool,” or byssus). Apparently only the ruling classes were allowed to wear these chlamys.”
Mollusc shells, including those of cowries, were used as a kind of money in several pre-industrial societies. However these “currencies” generally differed in important ways from the standardized government-backed and -controlled money familiar to industrial societies. Some shell “currencies” were not used for commercial transactions but mainly as social status displays at important occasions such as weddings. When used for commercial transactions they functioned as commodity money, in other words as a tradable commodity whose value differed from place to place, often as a result of difficulties in transport, and which was vulnerable to incurable inflation if more efficient transport or “goldrush” behavior appeared.
Threats to humans
Stings and bites
The blue-ringed octopus’s rings are a warning signal this octopus is alarmed, and its bite can kill.
When handled alive, a few species of molluscs can sting or bite, and for some species, this can present a serious risk to the human who is handling the animal. To put this into the correct perspective however, deaths from mollusc venoms are less than 10% of the number of deaths from jellyfish stings.
All octopuses are venomous but only a few species pose a significant threat to humans. Blue-ringed octopuses in the genus Hapalochlaena, which live around Australia and New Guinea, bite humans only if severely provoked, but their venom kills 25% of human victims. Another tropical species, Octopus apollyon, causes severe inflammation that can last for over a month even if treated correctly.
Live cone snails can be dangerous to shell-collectors but are useful to neurology researchers
Cone snails, carnivorous gastropods that feed on marine invertebrates (and in the case of larger species on fish), produce a huge array of toxins, some fast-acting and others slower but deadlier they can afford to do this because their toxins require less time and energy to be produced compared with those of snakes or spiders. Many painful stings have been reported and a few fatalities, although some of the reported fatalities may be exaggerations. Only the few larger species of cone snail that can capture and kill fish are likely to be seriously dangerous to humans. The effects of individual cone shell toxins on victims’ nervous systems are so precise that they are useful tools for research in neurology, and the small size of their molecules makes it easy to synthesize them.
The traditional belief that a giant clam can trap the leg of a person between its valves, thus drowning them, is a myth.
Pests
Skin vesicles created by the penetration of Schistosoma. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia, bilharziosis or snail fever) is “second only to malaria as the most devastating parasitic disease in tropical countries. An estimated 200 million people in 74 countries are infected with the disease 100 million in Africa alone.” The parasite has 13 known species, of which two infect humans. The parasite itself is not a mollusc, but all the species have freshwater snails as intermediate hosts.
Some species of molluscs, particularly certain snails and slugs, can be serious crop pests, and snails or slugs introduced into new environments can unbalance local ecosystems. One such pest, the giant African snail Achatina fulica, has been introduced to many parts of Asia, as well as to many islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. In the 1990s this species reached the West Indies. Attempts to control it by introducing the predatory snail Euglandina rosea proved disastrous, as the predator ignored Achatina fulica and went on to extirpate several native snail species instead.
Despite its name, Molluscum contagiosum is a viral disease, and is unrelated to molluscs.
Notes
^ Spelled mollusk in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg’s ; for the spelling “mollusc” see the reasons given by Brusca & Brusca. Invertebrates (2nd ed.). .
^ It is possible that Kimberella is more closely related to, for instance, the brachiopods than the molluscs
References
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^ Barnes, R.S.K., Calow, P., Olive, P.J.W., Golding, D.W. and Spicer, J.I. (2001). The Invertebrates, A Synthesis (3 ed.). UK: Blackwell Science.
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^ Richard Black (April 26, 2008). “Colossal squid out of the freezer”. BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7367774.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
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^ Little, L., Fowler, H.W., Coulson, J., and Onions, C.T., ed (1964). “Mollusca”. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University press.
^ Little, L., Fowler, H.W., Coulson, J., and Onions, C.T., ed (1964). “Malacology”. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University press.
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^ Ruppert, E.E., Fox, R.S., and Barnes, R.D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology (7 ed.). Brooks / Cole. pp. 343367. ISBN 0030259827.
^ a b c Ruppert, E.E., Fox, R.S., and Barnes, R.D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology (7 ed.). Brooks / Cole. pp. 367403. ISBN 0030259827.
^ a b Ruppert, E.E., Fox, R.S., and Barnes, R.D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology (7 ed.). Brooks / Cole. pp. 403407. ISBN 0030259827.
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Further reading
Starr & Taggart (2002). Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life. Pacific Grove, California: Thomson Learning.
Nunn, J.D., Smith, S.M., Picton, B.E. and McGrath, D. 2002. Checklist, atlas of distribution and bibliography for the marine mollusca of Ireland. in. Marine Biodiversity in Ireland and Adjacent Waters. Ulster Museum. publication no. 8.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mollusca
Wikispecies has information related to: Mollusca
The Wikibook Dichotomous Key has a page on the topic of
Mollusca
Hardy’s Internet Guide to Marine Gastropods
Planktonic mollusca fact sheets
v d e
Opisthokonta: Extant phyla of kingdom Animalia by subkingdom
Parazoa
Porifera (Calcarea, Demospongiae, Hexactinellida) Placozoa (Trichoplax)
Mesozoa
Orthonectida Rhombozoa
Eumetazoa
Radiata
Ctenophora Cnidaria (Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Cubozoa, Staurozoa, Myxozoa)
Bilateria
Protostomia
Ecdysozoa
Cycloneuralia: Scalidophora (Kinorhyncha, Loricifera, Priapulida) Nematoida (Nematoda, Nematomorpha)
Panarthropoda: Onychophora Tardigrada Arthropoda
Spiralia
Platyzoa
Platyhelminthes Gastrotricha
Gnathifera: Rotifera Acanthocephala Gnathostomulida Micrognathozoa Cycliophora
Lophotrochozoa
Trochozoa (Sipuncula, Nemertea, Mollusca, Annelida, Echiura)
Lophophorata (Bryozoa, Entoprocta, Phoronida, Brachiopoda)
Deuterostomia
Ambulacraria
Hemichordata Echinodermata Xenoturbellida
Chordata
Craniata (Vertebrata, Hyperotreti) Cephalochordata Tunicata
Basal/disputed
Acoelomorpha (Acoela, Nemertodermatida) Chaetognatha
Categories: Molluscs | PhylaHidden categories: Articles using diversity taxobox
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