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Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks [a] (/ ˈ m ɒ l ə s k s /). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda . [ 5 ]
The mollusc (or mollusk [a]) shell is typically a calcareous exoskeleton which encloses, supports and protects the soft parts of an animal in the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, clams, tusk shells, and several other classes. Not all shelled molluscs live in the sea; many live on the land and in freshwater.
The two major classes of molluscs have representatives in freshwater: the gastropods (snails) and the bivalves (freshwater mussels and clams.) It appears that the other classes within the Phylum Mollusca -the cephalopods, scaphopods, polyplacophorans, etc. - never made the transition from a fully marine environment to a freshwater environment.
Chiton phylogeny has gone relatively underexplored compared to the more charismatic classes of molluscs, and as such is still somewhat poorly understood. The relationships between orders and superfamilies has been made clear thanks to phylogenomics, [ 42 ] [ 43 ] but interfamilial relationships are still largely unknown because of the lack of ...
A clam shell (species Spisula solidissima) at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc.The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds.
A cockle is an edible marine bivalve mollusc.Although many small edible bivalves are loosely called cockles, true cockles are species in the family Cardiidae. [2]True cockles live in sandy, sheltered beaches throughout the world.
List of mollusc orders illustrates the 97 orders in the phylum Mollusca, the largest marine animal phylum. 85,000 extant species are described, [1] making up 23% of described marine organisms. [ 2 ] Class Aplacophora
The evolution of the molluscs is the way in which the Mollusca, one of the largest groups of invertebrate animals, evolved. This phylum includes gastropods , bivalves , scaphopods , cephalopods , and several other groups.