mollusk

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Representative mollusks. Bivalves have a shell with two halves. Filter feeders, they take in food and water through a tubular siphon. In the clam, a muscular foot is used for burrowing and creeping. The chitons, typically found adhering to rocks and shells, have shells divided into eight overlapping plates. Tusk shells, or scaphopods, are burrowing mollusks with a shell open at both ends; with the larger end buried in the sand, they feed on microorganisms captured by the tentacles. The whelks, like most gastropods (univalves), have a single shell, which is usually coiled; when threatened, the body can be pulled into the shell, which is closed by a plate (operculum). Cephalopods have a well-developed head and a foot divided into numerous tentacles. The two long tentacles of the squid are used to capture prey, and the short arms transfer food to the mouth. The nautilus is the only cephalopod that has retained an exterior shell; by regulating the amount of gas and fluid in the interior chambers, it can regulate its buoyancy.

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mollusk

animal phylum

Also known as: Mollusca, mollusc

Written by Luitfried Salvini-Plawen

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 11, 2024 • Article History

Also spelled:: mollusc

Key People:: William Keith Brooks; Augustus A. Gould

Related Topics:: gastropod; bivalve; cephalopod; chiton; nephridium

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mollusk, 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 ...(100 of 5138 words)

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