mollusk

—molluskan, molluscan /meuh lus"keuhn/, adj., n. —mollusklike, adj.

/mol"euhsk/, n.

any invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, typically having a calcareous shell of one, two, or more pieces that wholly or partly enclose the soft, unsegmented body, including the chitons, snails, bivalves, squids, and octopuses.

Also, mollusc.

[1775-85; < F mollusque < NL Mollusca; see MOLLUSCA]

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or mollusc

Any of some 75,000 species of soft-bodied invertebrate animals (phylum Mollusca), many of which are wholly or partly enclosed in a calcium carbonate shell secreted by the mantle, a soft covering formed from the body wall.

Between the mantle and the body is the mantle cavity. Mollusks occur in most habitats from the deep sea to high mountains. Living mollusks are usually grouped into eight classes: Gastropoda (see gastropod), Bivalvia or Pelecypoda (see bivalve), Cephalopoda (see cephalopod), Scaphopoda (tusk shells), Aplacophora (Solenogasters), Caudofoveata (sometimes included in the Aplacophora order), Polyplacophora (chitons), and Monoplacophora. Mollusks are economically important as food, and their shells are widely used in jewelry and decorative items.

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▪ animal phylum

Introduction

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. Along with the insects and vertebrates, it is one of the most diverse groups in the animal kingdom, with nearly 100,000 (possibly as many as 150,000) described species. Each group includes an ecologically and structurally immense variety of forms: the shell-less Caudofoveata; the narrow-footed gliders (Solenogastres); the serially valved chitons (Placophora or Polyplacophora); the cap-shaped neopilinids (Monoplacophora); the limpets, snails, and slugs (Gastropoda); the clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, shipworms, and cockles (Bivalvia); the tubiform to barrel-shaped tusk shells (Scaphopoda); and the nautiluses, cuttlefishes, squids, and octopuses (Cephalopoda).

General features

Size range and diversity of structure

      Typical molluscan features have been substantially altered, or even lost, in many subgroups. Among the cephalopods (cephalopod) the giant squids (Architeuthis), the largest living invertebrates, attain a body length of eight metres (more than 26 feet); with the tentacle arms extended, the total length reaches to 22 metres. Other cephalopods exceed a length of one metre. Many of the remaining molluscan classes show a large variation in size: among bivalves the giant clam (Tridacna) ranges up to 135 centimetres (four feet) and the pen shell (Pinna) from 40 to 80 centimetres; among gastropods the sea hares (Aplysia) grow from 40 to 100 centimetres and the Australian trumpet, or baler (Syrinx), up to 60 centimetres; among placophores the gumshoe, or gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton), achieves a length up to 30 to 43 centimetres; and, among solenogasters (solenogaster), Epimenia reaches a length of 15 to 30 centimetres. Finally, gastropods of the family Entoconchidae, which are parasitic in echinoderm sea cucumbers, may reach a size of almost 1.3 metres. In contrast, there are also minute members, less than one millimetre (0.04 inch) in size, among the solenogasters and gastropods.

Distribution and abundance

      The mollusks have adapted to all habitats except air. Although basically marine, bivalves and gastropods include freshwater species. Gastropods have also adapted to land, with thousands of species living a fully terrestrial existence. Found on rocky, sandy, and muddy substrata, mollusks burrow, crawl, become cemented to the surface, or are free-swimming.

      Mollusks are found worldwide, but there is a preponderance of some groups in certain areas of the world. The close association of many molluscan groups with their food source—whether by direct dependence on a specific food supply (e.g., plant-eating, or herbivores) or by involvement in food chains—limits their geographic distribution; for example, bivalves of the family Teredinidae (shipworms) are associated with wood. In general, cold-water regions support fewer species.

Importance to humans

      Mollusks are of general importance within food chains and as members of ecosystems. Certain species are of direct or indirect commercial and even medical importance to humans. Many gastropod species, for example, are necessary intermediate hosts for parasitic flatworms (class Trematoda, phylum Platyhelminthes), such as the species that cause schistosomiasis in humans. Most bivalves contribute to the organic turnover in the intertidal (littoral (littoral zone)) zones of marine and fresh water because, as filter (filter feeding) feeders, they filter up to 40 litres (10 gallons) of water per hour. This filtering activity, however, may also seriously interfere with the various populations of invertebrate larvae (plankton) found suspended and free-swimming in the water. One species, the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), is regarded as a particularly harmful exotic invader. Carried from Europe in ship ballast water, zebra mussels were taken to the Great Lakes in 1986. To date, they have caused millions of dollars in commercial damage by clogging the water pipes of power plants and cooling systems. They are driving many native freshwater bivalve species to extinction.

      Many gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods are a source of food for many cultures and therefore play an important role in the fishing industries of many countries. Many shell-bearing molluscan species are also used to fabricate ornaments and are harvested for the pearl and mother-of-pearl industries.

Natural history

reproduction and life cycles (life cycle)

      Mollusks are primarily of separate sexes, and the reproductive (reproductive system, animal) organs (gonads) are simple. Reproduction via an unfertilized gamete ( parthenogenesis) is also found among gastropods of the subclass Prosobranchia (prosobranch). 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. In prosobranch gastropods, water currents may cause a simple internal fertilization within the mantle cavity, or males may fertilize eggs internally using a muscular penis. Both male and female reproductive organs may be present in one individual ( hermaphroditism) in some species, and various groups exhibit different adaptations to this body form. For example, in hermaphroditic bivalves and prosobranch gastropods, male and female gonads are functional at separate times and in rhythmic and consecutive patterns (successive hermaphroditism). Conversely, male and female gonads are functional at the same time (simultaneous hermaphroditism) in solenogasters and many other gastropods.

      Fertilization by transfer of capsules containing sperm (spermatophores) typically occurs in cephalopods and some gastropods. In cephalopods, transfer of spermatophores is usually combined with copulation by a modified arm, or hectocotylus. Copulation in solenogasters, often by means of a special genital cone, may be supported by copulatory stylets. Various penis formations, in part with copulatory stylets, or darts, are widely found in gastropods.

      Eggs are deposited singly or in groups, generally on some hard surface and often within jelly masses or leathery capsules. Squids of the suborder Oegopsida and some gastropods have eggs that are suspended in the water. Fertilized eggs commonly undergo spiral cleavage, as in annelids and a number of other “protostome” phyla. The eggs of cephalopods, on the other hand, possess a large amount of yolk, which displaces the dividing cells and causes a characteristic type of development.

      Many mollusks develop into free-swimming larvae; these larvae are either feeding (planktotrophic) or nonfeeding (lecithotrophic). The larva in primitive bivalves is a pericalymma (test cell) larva in which the embryo is protected below a covering (test) of cells provided with one to four girdles of cilia (cilium), at the apex of which is a sensory plate of ciliated cells. After the developing juvenile has grown out apically of the test (which then is lost), the animal settles and develops into an adult. The test in other lecithotrophic larvae is restricted to a preoral girdle of ciliated cells (the prototrochus) and is called the trochophore larva. Trochophores are encountered in the development of many marine annelid species (phylum Annelida). In more advanced mollusks (such as in marine gastropods and bivalves), the trochophore larva develops into a veliger larva. In these generally planktotrophic larvae, the girdle of ciliated cells widens to form a velum that entraps food and also propels the microscopic mollusk through the water. As the larva continues to develop, the shell, mantle cavity, tentacles, and foot appear. After a specific amount of time, which varies according to species and environmental conditions, the larva loses the velum and metamorphoses into an adult. A substantial change in shell morphology usually marks the transition to adult form.

      Secondary (newly evolved) larvae have developed among some freshwater bivalves and some cephalopods. Maternal protection of the developing eggs (brood) is not unexceptional behaviour in solenogasters, bivalves, and certain gastropod adults. Direct development without a larval stage or the bearing of live young from a yolky egg, or both, are typical in cephalopods and most nonmarine (and many marine) gastropods. Many species go through two breeding seasons per year, whereas in some cephalopod species mating or egg laying appears to be rapidly followed by death effected by hormones.

Habitats, feeding habits, and associations

      Caudofoveates (subclass Chaetodermomorpha, class Aplacophora) burrow in muddy sediments at depths of 10 to more than 7,000 metres (33 to 23,000 feet) and consume microorganisms and loose organic material (detritus). In contrast, solenogasters (subclass Neomeniamorpha, class Aplacophora) prey on some members of the class Cnidaria (e.g., hydroids and corals) in five to 6,850 metres of water, on clay or muddy sand, or directly upon hydroid or coral colonies. Chitons (chiton) (class Polyplacophora) cling to hard bottoms of the intertidal zone, scraping algae from the rock surfaces by using their strong rasping teeth ( radula); several members of the polyplacophoran family Lepidopleuridae consume detritus found at depths down to 7,000 metres, and Hanleyidae as well as Hopaliidae even depend on animal food. The few extant members of the class Monoplacophora (monoplacophoran) inhabit secondary hard bottoms at depths of 175 to 6,500 metres and capture detritus by means of head appendages (velum) around the mouth. The scaphopods (tusk shell) dwell in sand or sandy mud down to 7,000 metres and nourish themselves on protozoa, crustaceans, or small mollusks captured by the filamentous head tentacles (captacula). Except for the carnivorous septibranch anomalodermata, all bivalves are ciliary suspension feeders, using food-sorting organs near the mouth (labial palps) and respiratory gills (gill) modified to assist in feeding (ctenidia). Found in marine and fresh water, most bivalves burrow into sediments to depths of 10,700 metres or attach themselves to hard surfaces by means of tough threads secreted by the byssus gland in the foot. The members of some species may even bore into wood or rock. Cephalopods are generally carnivores, feeding on crustaceans and fishes, but some have adapted a microvorous diet of detritus and microscopic organisms and plants. Some cephalopods are offshore (pelagic) jet swimmers, moving from the surface to depths of 5,400 metres, while others dwell near the bottom (benthic) at depths of 8,100 metres.

      The greatest ecological diversity is shown by the gastropods. The marine members are found from the spring-tide line to deep-sea trenches (10,500 metres deep) and inhabit nearly all possible habitats, even floating weeds. Both shelled and naked gastropods have pelagic members that spend their entire lives swimming in the water; others penetrate marine hot vents or interstices between sand grains. Some gastropods are parasitic, while others are predatory. Freshwater snails also are found in groundwaters and may inhabit hot springs. Widely distributed throughout all terrestrial habitats, various members of the gastropod order Stylommatophora are adapted to certain regions.

      Some littoral bivalves, such as Tridacna, as well as some sea slugs (nudibranch), such as Aeolidia, share an obligatory symbiosis with zooxanthellae (a group of algae). Another metabolic association exists between certain bacteria and several bivalves and gastropods of deep-sea hot vents or other sulfide systems. There are several parasitic mollusks.

Locomotion

 Mollusks have a wide range of locomotory patterns. Solenogasters and various smaller gastropods glide upon cilia that beat rapidly against a pathway of mucus secretions. This pattern of movement is supported or replaced in larger mollusks by the propulsive waves that run along the surface of the foot and are controlled by the actions of the dorsoventral musculature (Figure 1—>). Burrowing occurs as an interaction between musculature and the hydrostatic skeleton (see below Internal features (mollusk)); it is performed in caudofoveates and several sea slugs by the whole anterior body but is restricted to the foot in scaphopods, bivalves, and some specialized gastropods.

      Various bivalves (e.g., cockles) and snails may perform rapid twists or jumps through violent flexion of the foot. Buoyancy floating and jet propulsion are found in cephalopods; floating is also known in gastropods, and swimming of a different kind is practiced by some opisthobranch and prosobranch gastropods as well as in scallops and related bivalves. Octopods use their arms to crawl or even to swim or float with the help of the body skin interconnecting the arms (interbrachiate web). Some bivalve groups bore into hard surfaces by secreting strong chemicals that dissolve the substrate or by drilling, using the shell and radula. A sedentary (sessile) way of life has been adopted by many bivalves and some gastropods.

Features of defense

      The external cover that extends over the mantle may consist of a hardened epithelial layer called a cuticle, separate calcareous plates, or a shell. Another defense includes the ability of most solenogasters and chitons to roll the body up. Chitons, neopilinids, and limpets can adhere firmly to the substrate by a powerful suction pad foot. Protection is also afforded if the animal is able to withdraw into its shell; a snail has the added advantage of having a hardened plate (operculum) on the foot that blocks the shell opening (auricle) once the animal has withdrawn. Burrowing by caudofoveates, scaphopods, many bivalves, and some gastropods also offers protection from predators.

      In many gastropods, slippery mucus is secreted from mantle extensions, or parapodia, as a defense against larger predators, such as sea stars (starfish). In scaphopods, mucus is secreted against an aggressor from the anterior mantle. Certain molluscan subgroups secrete noxious chemicals either as a poisonous secretion of the salivary glands or as distasteful acids in mantle cells. Glandular secretions by solenogasters or the gastropod superfamily Eolidacea prevent the stinging nettle capsules (nematocysts (nematocyst)) of cnidarians, when consumed, from expulsing the stingers; moreover, some gastropods are able to store and then use the capsules in their own defense when attacked by a predator. Some mollusks secrete fluids to divert or frighten a predator, to provide camouflage, or to inhibit the predator's sense of smell. For example, the ink in cephalopods, the luminous cloud secreted by some deep-sea squids, and the purple fluid from the sea hare (Aplysia; a gastropod of the subclass Opisthobranchia) distract and confuse the predator and conceal the prey. Camouflage or frightening coloration are effective in protecting cuttlefishes, octopuses, and sea slugs, as well as other gastropods.

Form and function

 The highly varied evolutionary development of basic molluscan features has left only a few characters that may be taken as typical. As a result, molluscan form varies much among levels and subgroups (Figure 1—>).

External features

      The most obvious external molluscan features are the dorsal epidermis called the mantle (or pallium), the foot, the head (except in bivalves), and the mantle cavity. The mantle in caudofoveates and solenogasters is covered by cuticle that contains scales or minute, spinelike, hard bodies (spicules), or both (aplacophoran level). The chitons (class Polyplacophora) develop a series of eight articulating plates or valves often surrounded by a girdle of cuticle with spicules; in all other mollusks, the mantle secretes an initially homogeneous shell. The mantle and shell are laterally compressed in scaphopods and bivalves; in gastropods and cephalopods the head is free of the mantle and shell. In bivalves a dorsal hinge ligament joins two shell valves, which are further held together by two adductor muscles with attachment points on the inner aspect of each valve.

      The molluscan body, which contains all the visceral elements (such as the digestive tract, gonads, and heart), is connected to the mantle by dorsoventral musculature. The head, when present, has tentacles called captacula in scaphopods, labial palps in bivalves, head tentacles in gastropods, and arms in cephalopods. The primitive ciliary gliding surface with forward pedal and sole glands is reduced in caudofoveats and some gastropods, as well as in some bivalves, and it is narrowed to a ridged tract in solenogasters as well as some members of the placophore genus Cryptoplax. The foot forms an anteriorly elongated and slendered burrowing organ in scaphopods, is ax-shaped to vermiform in bivalves, and is modified to a siphon or funnel in cephalopods. Among gastropods of the subclass Opisthobranchia, the foot may be extended laterally to form swimming lobes (parapodia), or even flapping wings (in pteropods, or sea butterflies).

      The mantle, or pallial, cavity is found between the mantle rim and the body. The pallial complex is a collection of structures at the roof of the mantle cavity and typically contains at least one pair of lamellate gills (ctenidia), a thick layer of glandular epithelium called mucus tracts or hypobranchial glands, and the outlets for the digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems. A loss of the ctenidia (along with the mucus tracts) is seen in scaphopods, advanced gastropods, septibranch bivalves, and solenogasters.

Internal features

Muscles and tissues

      The internal molluscan organization is almost entirely soft-bodied. The body cavity is filled with fibrous tissue or fluid-filled spaces (hemocoel), or both. When filled with fluid, the hemocoel expands against the body wall and fibrous tissues, providing a rigid framework and stretching opposing muscles. This same fluid pressure, generated by contraction of other muscles, allows the foot to extend from the shell and penetrate the sediment for burrowing. Conversely, extrusion of the head and foot from the shell in gastropods and cephalopods, shell elevation in gastropods, and the rapid expansion and contraction of the mantle required for jet propulsion in squid and other cephalopods are the result of muscle contractions in the mantle tissue.

      The basic sets of muscle systems, fully retained only in solenogasters, include the subintegumental musculature below the mantle; a pair of longitudinal muscle bundles below the mantle margins, which roll the body up and which are almost disintegrated in conchiferans; and the dorsoventral musculature, which is reduced in caudofoveates and shell-less gastropods and which in shelled gastropods forms the columellar muscles that attach the animal to its shell.

The nervous system and organs of sensation

      In the nervous system typical of mollusks, a pair of cerebral ganglia (masses of nerve cell bodies) innervate the head, mouth, and associated sense organs. From the dorsal cerebral ganglia, two pairs of longitudinal nerve cords arise: a pair of lateral (pleural) nerve cords, often forming pleural ganglia (which innervate the mantle), and a ventral pair of pedal nerve cords, often forming pedal ganglia (which innervate the foot). In primitive forms both cords are interconnected by lateral branches of nerve fibres. A buccal nerve loop with paired ganglia generally supplies the radular apparatus in the head. Posterior paired visceral ganglia, when present, innervate the viscera. Other mollusks have various grades of ganglia, all of which may be concentrated anteriorly. Because of torsion (that is, a twisting of the body during development), special nerve configurations are found in gastropods; in cephalopods a cartilaginous capsule encloses the concentrated mass of ganglia.

      Supplied by the most posterior aspect of the lateral nerve cords, a chemoreceptive (chemoreception) sense organ (the osphradium) monitors the water currents entering the mantle cavity. This organ has regressed in scaphopods, some cephalopods, and some gastropods. Pluricellular mantle papillae, which penetrate the cuticle, the valves, and the shell in some conchifers, are differentiated in placophores as photoreceptors. Aside from the well-developed, vertebrate-like eyes of cephalopods, there are photoreceptors (photoreception) on the mantle margins of scallops and related bivalves. Orientation in different gastropods is evidenced by reaction to polarized light, which in part serves for homing. Homing in other gastropods and in the chitons that flee from light appears to be performed by chemoreception along their mucus trails.

The digestive system (digestive system, invertebrate)

      The primitive alimentary tract is straight, and the foregut contains glands and chitinized teeth, called the radula, upon a tough membrane or ribbon underlain by a mass of compact tissue as a support and operated by musculature. In bivalves and some other mollusks the whole radular apparatus is reduced or absent. The radula is used to bite, tear, and scrape various food materials. The different structural aspects of the radula in caudofoveates, solenogasters, and gastropods serve in classification. The differentiation of a more flexible radular structure among the primitive archaeogastropods subsequently enabled successful radiation into diverse habitats.

      The midgut in caudofoveates (class Aplacophora) divides into a hindgut and a large ventral sac for enzyme production. In contrast, the midgut in placophores and conchifers is subdivided into a slender esophagus with a pair of glandular pouches, a distinct stomach with a pair of digestive glands, and a slender, often looped intestine. In primitive conchifers the stomach is of the so-called style sac type. The esophagus opens into an anterior elaboration of the stomach into which the enzymes from the style sac, an area separated by ridges, also are released; the tapered end of the stomach leads to the intestine. Cilia (cilium) that line the style sac churn the stomach contents and form a long food-laden mucous mass called a protostyle, which abuts a chitinous area of epithelium in the stomach. Usually found within the style sac is a rod, called the crystalline style. The protostyle or the crystalline style are fully retained in the bivalves and gastropods that subsist on small microorganisms and detritus. The protostyle or crystalline style may vary in form among the bivalves. Digestion in primitive forms appears to have been both intracellular and extracellular, such as is still the case in solenogasters (class Aplacophora), many bivalves, and most gastropods. In advanced levels either intracellular or extracellular digestion appears to be exclusively elaborated—e.g., advanced crystalline style and intracellular.

The circulatory system

      Mollusks possess an open circulatory system in which body fluid (hemolymph) is transported largely within sinuses devoid of distinct epithelial walls. The posteriodorsal heart enclosed in a pericardium typically consists of a ventricle and two posterior auricles. Hemolymph is drained from ctenidia, gills, or other specialized respiratory epithelia into the respective auricles. The ventricle pumps the hemolymph through a middorsal sinus (in solenogasters and scaphopods) or vessel (aorta) into the body tissues. Hemolymph drains from the tissues into the gills, whence it returns to the auricles.

      The respiratory pigment is commonly dissolved in the fluid, either as hemoglobin (as is especially the case in bivalves) or more generally as hemocyanin, which contains copper rather than iron; in more-advanced forms, hemoglobin is bound to blood cells. In chitons and monoplacophorans (but not in the caudofoveates and the solenogasters) the heart is also the site of the purifying ultrafiltration, and the waste products are then discharged into the pericardium and via a pair of pericardial outlets modified to excretory organs (emunctoria, such as false kidneys or nephridia).

The reproductive system (reproductive system, animal)

      In adult cephalopods and some other representatives the paired dorsal gonad retains the developmental connection with the pericardium. In caudofoveates and solenogasters, eggs or sperm are discharged into the pericardial cavity, and from there the pericardial outlets transport them to the environment, where fertilization takes place. In more-advanced mollusks there are usually separate ducts to transport the gametes (gonoducts): a pair of gonoducts, called oviducts for the female gametes and spermiducts, or vas deferens, for the male gametes, leads the egg and sperm, respectively, to the mantle cavity. Glands to secrete protective coatings around the egg may be present. In gastropods the left gonad is reduced, and after torsion only the right gonad is operational, leaving the internal body asymmetrical; similar asymmetries are also found in some other molluscan subgroups.

The endocrine system

      Hormone production is not well documented in mollusks other than gastropods and cephalopods. Antagonistic neurohormonal control of reproductive activity and metabolic processes is performed in the gastropods through cerebral dorsal bodies and lateral lobes or juxtaposed organs and in the cephalopods through optic glands. In some cephalopods, the hormones (hormone) also effect death by starvation after the mollusk has deposited its eggs or has mated. Neurosecretions by cells outside the nerve cell bodies (ganglia) have been described in gastropods and cephalopods, the released hormones diffusing through the tissues rather than being concentrated in special organs.

      Heart rate in mollusks plays a crucial role in many metabolic processes, including excretion; hormones that affect the heart are released from the wall of veins in cephalopods or, in gastropods, from the subesophageal ganglia, the junction between the auricles and the ventricle. Insulin-like hormones shed from gastropods and bivalves by certain midgut cells control the amount of glucogen (a storage form of sugar) kept as a reserve nutrient.

evolution and paleontology

      There are no known fossil records of caudofoveates and solenogasters. Both chitons and conchifers date from the earliest Cambrian time (about 542 million years ago). These records exclude the scaphopods and cephalopods but include the extinct Merismoconchia, Helcionellida, and Rostroconchia. Most of these fossils represent fairly small organisms of about one to five millimetres (0.04 to 0.2 inch), which metabolically parallel the primitive lecithotrophic, rather than planktotrophic, larval development. The oldest known cephalopods are of the Late Cambrian epoch (which ended some 505 million years ago) and subsequently had a remarkable radiation, including the dominant Ammonites (predominantly spirally coiled cephalopods with complicated sutures between chambers and shell—some 10,000 fossil forms—until the Cretaceous (about 100 million years ago). Extinct bivalves (about 15,000 forms) exceed in number the recent fauna. Scaphopods have not been recorded before the Middle Ordovician (some 450 million years ago).

      The fossil record gives little clue as to how the mollusks originated and how the eight classes differentiated in Precambrian times. The evolutionary pathway must thus be largely inferred from comparative anatomy and development and, more recently, from molecular data. The common archimolluscan base may have been shell-less (aplacophoran) in organization; that in turn may have been differentiated from some flatwormlike organization that adapted the mantle cover rather than from a coelomate segmented construction. Most obvious is the subsequent elaboration of the mantle cover defining the aplacophoran, the polyplacophoran, and (by fusion) the monoplacophoran level of organization. The realization that the organization of the mantle and mantle cavity in caudofoveates and solenogasters reflects two separate evolutionary lines also discloses conservative molluscan characters. The solenogasters appear to be linked by developmental characters with the placophores; they have retained, however, the most primitive alimentary tract (in that the radular membrane is poorly elaborated, and no midgut gland is separated). The latter was reorganized at the placophore level and overtaken in the conchifers. The subradular organ, the arrangement of the dorsoventral musculature, the three-layered shell structure with enclosed mantle papillae, and the excretory system also demonstrate the placophore heritage in the tryblids, which are the more primitive of the conchifera. Subsequently this radiated into two branches called subclades: the supraclass Loboconcha (or Diasoma), including the suspension-feeding bivalves, and the infaunal scaphopods, sharing a common ancestor in the fossil class Rostroconchia. These groups have a mantle with the shell enlarged in width to envelop the soft body as well as an anterior elongated foot to live on the bottoms of mobile particles (sand, mud). In contrast, a free head with cerebral eyes is set off from the mantle and shell in the supraclass Visceroconcha, including the gastropods and the cephalopods; both share a posterior mantle cavity, lateral (or pleural) nerve cords medial to the dorsoventral musculature, and an antagonistic muscle system (see above Internal features: Muscles and tissues (mollusk)). The relation of the fossil order Bellerophontacea is controversial.

Classification

      This classification is a consensus of recent views mainly of Luitfried v. Salvini-Plawen and Gerhard Haszprunar, generally based on those of Kenneth J. Boss.

Annotated classification

Phylum Mollusca

 Unsegmented, soft-bodied metazoans with mantle (or pallium) covered by cuticular or calcareous secretions, or both; ventral body with head region; and ciliar to muscular locomotion organ; lamellate gills (ctenidia); paired chemoreceptive sense organ (osphridia); nervous system tetraneurous with cerebral ganglia, buccal loop, and 2 pairs of longitudinal body cords, though often concentrated; pronounced dorsoventral musculature; pharyngeal teeth (radula); hemocoelic body cavity with coelomatic pericardium and gonosacs; originally the sexes are separate; development includes spiral cleavage and a primitively lecithotrophic trochus larva; about 50,000 marine, limnic, and terrestrial species.

      Class Aplacophora

 Worm-shaped and without shells; marine, mostly in deep water. Possibly representive of the primitive molluscan condition or a secondary reduction from more advanced, shelled ancestors. About 300 species.

      Subclass Chaetodermomorpha (Caudofoveata)

 Worm-shaped; covered by cuticle and aragonitic scales; ventral gliding area reduced; mantle cavity terminal with 1 pair of ctenidia; midgut with ventrally separated sac; adapted to burrowing habits in mud; marine in 10–7,000 m; 2 mm to 14 cm; about 100 species in 3 families.

      Subclass Neomeniomorpha (Solenogasters (solenogaster); narrow-footed gliders)

 Narrowed body and gliding sole (possibly related to the foot of other mollusks); mantle with cuticle and aragonitic scales or spicules, or both; mantle cavity modified; no true ctenidia; radular membrane rudimentary; midgut straight without separate glands; hermaphroditic; epibenthic predators of or epizoic on Cnidaria; marine in 5–6,850 m; 0.8 mm to 30 cm; about 200 species in 4 orders.

      Class Polyplacophora (chitons (chiton))

 Generally flattened body and broad foot; mantle covered with cuticle and spicules; 8 middorsal serial shell plates (valves) enclosing photoreceptive papillae (aesthetes); mantle cavity peripedal with multiple pairs of ctenidia; marine; mainly algae-scraping on hard bottoms in 0–7,000 m; 3 mm to 43 cm; 500 to 920 species in 3 orders.

      Class Monoplacophora (monoplacophoran) (neopilinids)

 Cap-shaped shell; head with 2 pairs of appendages; mantle cavity peripedal with 5–6 pairs of modified ctenidia; 5–6 pairs of excretory organs; 2 pairs of heart auricles and gonads; marine detritus feeders in 175–6,500 m; 1.5 to 37 mm; about 20 species in 1 family.

      Class Bivalvia (bivalve) (Pelecypoda; clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, shipworms, and cockles)

 Laterally compressed body; 2 middorsally hinged valves; posterior mantle often extended to form siphons; head with labial palps, foot ax-shaped to vermiform; peripedal mantle cavity with 1 pair of ctenidia mostly modified to large plates of lamellae; buccal mass (jaws and radula) reduced; predominantly ciliary suspension feeders burrowing in soft sediments or attached by byssus gland of foot on hard substrata in 0–10,700 m; 1 mm to 1.35 m; 3 subclasses: Ctenidiobranchia (Nuculida), Palaeobranchia (Solemyida), Autobranchia (lamellibranch and septibranch bivalves); about 6,000 marine and 2,000 limnic species.

      Class Scaphopoda (Solenoconcha; tusk shells (tusk shell))

 Midventrally fused mantle and tubiform to barrel-shaped shell; head with tubular snout and 2 bunches of slender tentacles (captacula); foot pointed and cylindrical; no ctenidia and distinct blood vessels; no heart auricles; radula strong; microcarnivores; marine burrowers in soft sediments, in 0–7,000 m; 2 to 150 mm; about 350 species in 2 orders.

      Class Gastropoda (gastropod) (limpets, snails, and slugs)

 Mantle cavity undergoes torsion and often secondarily “detorsion”; shell mostly coiled with operculum; head free with paired eyes; left reproductive organs reduced; immense ecological and structural variability; 0.3 mm to more than 1 m; at least 40,000 marine, limnic, and terrestrial species.

      Subclass Prosobranchia (prosobranch)

 Mostly marine limpets or operculate snails; 3 ganglia at visceral loop; orders include Archaeogastropoda (long cerebropleural connectives) and Apogastropoda (bifurcate tentacle nerves, 2 pedal commissures); at least 20,000 species.

      Subclass Opisthobranchia (opisthobranch) (Euthyneura) (bubble shells, sea hares, nudibranchs, and snails)

 Marine, limnic, or terrestrial snails and slugs without operculum; visceral loop with additional parietal ganglia; hermaphroditic; about 19,000 species.

      Class Cephalopoda (cephalopod) (nautiluses, cuttlefishes, squids, and octopuses)

 Dorsoventrally elongated body; shell straight, coiled, or almost highly regressive, originally chambered and pierced by a siphuncular tube; head free with paired eyes and 1 or 2 circles of 8–10, or about 90, tentacles (perioral arms); foot modified as a funnel for jet locomotion; mantle cavity restricted to posterior body with 2 ctenidia; alimentary tract with strong jaws and predominantly with a rectal ink sac; nervous system extremely concentrated; about 600 recent species (some 10,000 fossil forms) of 1 cm to 8 m (+14 m arms) in size; basically pelagic marine carnivores from the surface to 5,400 m depth or benthic to 8,100 m; 4 subclasses are Palcephalopoda (Orthoceroida; fossils); Nautiloida (fossil groups and 3–5 recent species); Ammonoida (fossils); and Coleoida (fossils and 4 recent orders).

Critical appraisal

      Many aspects of molluscan classification remain unsettled, particularly for gastropods and bivalves. The Amphineura, the former name for a group made up of the Polyplacophora (chitons) and Aplacophora (caudofoveates and solenogasters) within one subphylum, has been replaced by the more appropriate term Aculifera. All other mollusks are included in the subphylum Conchifera (shell-bearers). The familiar division of the Gastropoda into the subclasses Prosobranchia, Opisthobranchia, and Pulmonata is no longer widely accepted. Similarities in the morphology of the nervous system suggest that the opisthobranchs and pulmonates should be grouped within the subclass Opisthobranchia (Euthyneura).

Luitfried von Salvini-Plawen

Additional Reading

An extensive and updated treatment of molluscan structure, function, and evolution is Karl M. Wilbur (ed.), The Mollusca, 12 vol. (1983–88). The phylum is outlined in Kenneth J. Boss, “Mollusca,” in Sybil P. Parker (ed.), Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms, vol. 1 (1982), pp. 945–1166; while J.E. Morton, Molluscs, 5th ed. (1979), is a general discussion of their biology. Libbie Henrietta Hyman, The Invertebrates, vol. 6, Mollusca I (1967), contains information on the lower groups and a classic summary of gastropods. Other overviews include Alan Solem, The Shell Makers: Introducing Mollusks (1974); C.M. Yonge and T.E. Thompson, Living Marine Molluscs (1976); F.W. Harrison (ed.), Microscopic Anatomy of Invertebrates, vol. 5, Mollusca I (1994), and Microscopic Anatomy of Invertebrates, vol. 6, Mollusca II (1997); V. Fretter and A. Graham, British Prosobranch Molluscs, 2nd ed. (1994); R. Hanlon and J.B. Messenger, Cephalopod Behaviour (2005); C.M. Lalli and R.W. Gilmer, Pelagic Snails: The Biology of Holoplanktonic Gastropod Mollusks (1989); G. Vermeij, A Natural History of Shells (1995); and P.D. Ward, The Natural History of Nautilus (1987).

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