What are general characteristics of Mollusca?
The three most universal features defining modern molluscs are a mantle with a significant cavity used for breathing and excretion, the presence of a radula (except for bivalves), and the structure of the nervous system.
What animal kingdom do mollusks belong to?
AnimalMollusca / KingdomAnimals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and Wikipedia
What are the general classifications of the phylum Mollusca?
Phylum Mollusca is a very diverse (85,000 species ) group of mostly marine species, with a dramatic variety of form. This phylum can be segregated into seven classes: Aplacophora, Monoplacophora, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Cephalopoda, and Scaphopoda.
What is the main characteristic that all molluscs have in common?
Mollusks have a soft body and share several characteristics, including a muscular foot, a visceral mass of internal organs, and a mantle.
What makes a mollusk a mollusk?
Molluscs are a clade of organisms that all have soft bodies which typically have a “head” and a “foot” region. Often their bodies are covered by a hard exoskeleton, as in the shells of snails and clams or the plates of chitons.
What makes Mollusca unique?
A feature unique to molluscs is a file-like rasping tool called a radula. This structure allows them to scrape algae and other food off rocks and even to drill through the shell of prey or catch fish.
How do molluscs differ from other animals?
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. Many molluscs have a radula, which, in most species, is a rasp-like scraping organ used in feeding (Fig.
What defines Mollusca?
Definition of mollusk : 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 the adaptive features of Mollusca?
The subclass Coleoidea, which includes squid, cuttlefish and octopus, have a number of other unique adaptations among the molluscs. They have highly developed eyes, a complex nervous system, ink glands and skin cells with the ability to change color (known as chromatophores).
What best describes a mollusk?
mollusk, also spelled mollusc, any soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, usually wholly or partly enclosed in a calcium carbonate shell secreted by a soft mantle covering the body.
What are the characteristics of phylum Mollusca?
Characteristic Features of Phylum Mollusca. They are bilaterally symmetrical. They are triploblastic, which three layers. They show organ system grade of organisation. The body is soft and unsegmented. Body is divisible into three regions – head, visceral mass and ventral foot.
What is the animal kingdom of Mollusca?
Animal Kingdom. Molluscans are very diverse animals and form an important part of the ecosystem in the world. Some animals that you are familiar with like snails, octopuses, squids, oysters, clams etc. all belong to Phylum Mollusca.
What is Mollusca shell?
Study of molluscan shell is called conchology. The animals of this phylum are soft-bodied, non-metameric, triploblastic coelomates and fundamentally bilaterally symmetrical invertebrates with a thin fleshy envelope the mantle, around the visceral (internal organs of the body) which may secrete calcareous shell. They are sluggish animals.
What is the structure of head of mollusk?
Head: well developed head, containing high concentration of sensory and nervous functions Mollusk’s body is covered by soft and spongy layer of skin is called mantle or pallium Digestive system is complete. Buccal cavity contain rasping organ for feeding called radula.