SHERWIN BALTAZAR BSF3-2

ACTIVITY 6
Phylum Mollusca

Questions to be Answered
1. What is the function of the radula in a snail?
 it is used to rip food particles from a surface or drill holes in prey. It is supported
by a mass that resembles cartilage and is coated with rows of numerous tiny
teeth (denticles).
 anatomical structure used for feeding.

2. Discuss how the size, shape, and color of shells become part of the solution to the thermal
stress of mollusks.
• Mollusks use their shells as a form of protection. Numerous mollusks live in
difficult habitats like tidal pools, where the water level can shift suddenly and expose
species to the weather and predators like birds. Others live in deeper oceanic regions and
rely on their shells to defend them from even more powerful predators. The mollusk's soft
body is supported and given structure by the shell.

3. Why must the gills of the clam, called the ctenidium, have to be thin in structure?
 Ctenidia is a comb-like respiratory gill.
 Gills get water by an incurrent siphon. Food is moved toward the mouth as it is
caught in the gills. Food is crystalline-style filtered by the labial palps before
entering the mouth and stomach (spins). then moves on to the gut. Intestine.
Heart, rectum, anus, and excurrent siphon are all passed by in the digestive tract.

4. What are chromatophores? What is the importance or benefits of squid in terms of change
in its appearance?
 In the skin of many cephalopods, including squids, cuttlefish, and octopuses, are
organs called chromophores that contain pigment sacs that become more apparent
when tiny radial muscles pull the sac open, causing the pigment to grow beneath
the skin.
 The chromatophores' principal purpose is concealment. They are used to
create components that help the animal acquire general likeness to the
 substrate or blur the body's contour as well as to match the brightness of the
background.

5. Enumerate and discuss at least two importance of mollusks in an aquatic environment.

 They are important ecosystem engineers, helping to structure aquatic bottom
environments and providing habitat, protection, and food to a wide array of other
taxa.
 Mollusks can potentially be employed as environmental health markers. Bivalve
species are frequently employed as indicators of pollution levels in aquatic
habitats. Any heavy metals or poisons that are present in the water in significant
quantities are accumulated as they filter the feed.