Phylum Mollusca 

By:
Keano Lev Eslabon
Aishwarya Isabel Dela Pena
Marie Athena Ybanez
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 τᾲ μαλάκια, "the soft things“.
 The scientific study of molluscs is known as
Malacology.
Anatomy
 The generalized mollusc has a single,
“Iimpet-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
 The mantle secretes a shell that is
mainly Chitin and conchiolin (a protein)
hardened with calcium carbonate, but not
phosphate with the questionable exception
of Cobcrephora except that the outermost
layer is all conchiolin.
Foot
 The underside consists of a muscular foot, which has
adapted to different purposes in different classes.
 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 a sucker attaching to 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
 in cephalopods it is used for jet propulsion, and the
tentacles and arms are derived from the foot.
Physiology
A striking feature of molluscs is the use of
organs 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.
 Reproduction
 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
Classes of Molluscs
 bivalves

 gastropods

 cephalopods
 Bivalves
(Bivalvia)

 30,000 species
 including scallops, clams, oysters and mussels.
 have a shell consisting of two rounded plates
called valves joined at one edge by a flexible ligament called
the hinge.
 typically bilaterally symmetrical, with the hinge lying in
the sagittal plane.
 unique among the molluscs, having lost
their odontophore and radula in their transition to filter feeding.
Bivalves
(Bivalvia)

 Some bivalves are epifaunal; they attach to

surfaces. Others are infaunal; they bury themselves
in sediment. These forms typically have a strong
digging foot. Some bivalves such as scallops
can swim.
 The sexes are usually separate, but
some hermaphroditism is known. Bivalves
practice external fertilization. The gonads are
located close to the intestines, and either open into
the nephridia, or through a separate pore into the
mantle cavity
Gastropods
(Gastropoda)
 more commonly known as snails and slugs,
and include those that live in the sea, in
freshwater and on land
 most highly diversified class in
the phylum Mollusca, with 60,000 to 80,000
living snail and slug species.
 snails are distinguished by an anatomical
process known as torsion, where the visceral
mass of the animal rotates 180º to one side
during development, such that the anus is
situated more or less above the head
Gastropods
(Gastropoda)
 Torsion is present in all gastropods, but the
opisthobranch gastropods are secondarily de-torted
Torsion occurs in two mechanistic stages.
 Courtship is a part of mating behavior in some
gastropods including some of the Helicidae. Again,
in some land snails, an unusual feature of
thereproductive system of gastropods is the
presence and utilization of love darts.
 In many marine gastropods other than
the opisthobranchs, there are separate sexes; most
land gastropods however are hermaphrodites.
Cephalopods
(Cephalopoda)
 characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a
prominent head, and a modification of the
mollusk foot, a muscular hydrostat, into the
form of arms or tentacles
 Teuthology, a branch of malacology, is the
study of cephalopods
 The class contains two extant subclasses
 in the Coleoidea, the mollusk shell has been
internalized or is absent; this subclass includes
the octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish
Cephalopods
(Cephalopoda)
 In the Nautiloidea, the shell remains; this subclass
includes the nautilus.
Cephalopods
(Cephalopoda)
 the penis in most male Coleoidea is a long
and muscular end of the gonoduct used to
transfer spermatophores to a modified arm
called a hectocotylus. That in turn is used to
transfer the spermatophores to the female.
 in species where the hectocotylus is missing,
the penis is long and able to extend beyond
the mantle cavity and transfers the
spermatophores directly to the female