Animal Diversity: (Non-Chordates) Phylum : Mollusca Ranjana Saxena Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi Delhi e-mail:
[email protected] 24th September 2007 CONTENT 1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 2. PILA GLOBOSA a) Habit and Habitat b) Morphology c) Coelom d) Locomotion e) Digestive System f) Respiratory system g) Circulatory System h) Excretory System i) Nervous System j) Sense organs k) Reproductive System 3. SEPIA a) Habit and Habitat b) Morphology c) Shell d) Coelom e) Locomotion f) Digestive System g) Respiratory System h) Circulatory System i) Excretory System j) Nervous System k) Sense Organs l) Reproductive System 4. ANCESTRAL MOLLUSK 5. SHELL IN MOLLUSCA 6. FOOT AND ITS MODIFICATION 2 7. GILLS AND ITS MODIFICATION 8. MANTLE 9. TORSION IN MOLLUSCA 10. PEARL FORMATION 11. CLASSIFICATION 12. BIBLIOGRAPHY 13. SUGGESTED READING 3 PHYLUM MOLLUSCA The word Mollusca is derived from the latin word mollis which means soft bodied. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS • It is the second largest phylum of invertebrates consisting of more than 80,000 living species and about 35,000 fossil species. • The adults are triploblastic, bilaterally symmetrical animals with a soft unsegmented body. However, the bilateral symmetry may be lost in some adult mollusc. • Majority of them are enclosed in a calcareous shell. The shell may be external or in a few molluscs it may be internal, reduced or absent. • They have a well marked cephalisation. • The body is divisible into head, mantle, foot and visceral mass. • The visceral mass is enclosed in a thick muscular fold of the body wall called mantle which secretes the shell.