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Phylum Mollusca

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pbase.com

Molluscs part 1 of 3

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Animal tree of life

Phylum Mollusca – Who cares?

• Critical food for many predators

(e.g.boney fish and rays)
• Bioperturbation – ventilating sediments
• Damaging infrastructure (e.g. Teredo
worm – bores into wood)
• Important fisheries around the world (e.g.
oysters, scallops, squid)
• Shell collectors
• Those concerned about climate change
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(i.e. how do shells form in acid seas?)

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Phylum Mollusca
Reading - Chapter 33 Raven et al
Understand:
• Characteristics of animals in Phylum Mollusca
• Features of the four classes of Mollusca
• To be able to compare and contrast members of the classes
• Unique features of Molluscs
Mantle (secretes shell, locomotion), radula (feeding),
larval development, shell (in most), foot, torsion etc.

Class Bivalvia

Class Cephalopoda

Phylum
Mollusca Class Polyplacophora

Class Gastropoda

Not covered in todays lecture - Classes Caudofoveata,

Solenogastres, Monoplacophora, Scaphopoda

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Phylum Mollusca – General features of Molluscs (1)

• Triploblastic, coelomate, protostome

• Bilateral symmetry, non-segmented body

• Radula (in some)

• Ink (in some)

Phylum Mollusca – General features of Molluscs (2)

Molluscan systems
• Complete digestive tract with salivary gland, digestive gland
and rasping tongue (radula)
• Reproductive system – Monoecious (M&F parts) and
dioecious (separate M&F, 2 sexes)
• Nervous system - brain, sensory organs (eyes, sensory
papillae)
• Respiratory – Ctenidia (gills), lungs in some (pulmonates)
• Excretory – kidney-like nephridia
• Circulatory – Heart (generally 2 chambers) – open system
except for Cephalopoda

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Phylum Mollusca – Open circulatory system

• The circulatory system delivers nutrients and oxygen to all
cells in the body. It consists of a heart/hearts and the blood
vessels running through the body.
• Most molluscs have an open circulatory system, except for
cephalopods which have a closed circulatory system

Open circulatory system

Blood is not restricted to circulating within the blood vessels
 Blood collected from gills
 Heart
 Spaces in the tissues (hemocoel)
 Gills

Open circulatory system (bivalve)

Phylum Mollusca – Closed circulatory system

Closed circulatory system
• Cephalopods are the only molluscs with a closed circulatory system
(blood held within vessels) with three hearts.
• An open circulatory system is not efficient enough for octopi and squids
to move quickly.
Two branchial hearts - move blood through the gill's capillaries
One systemic heart - provides the rest of the body with oxygenated blood
Cephalopods have three hearts

(Deoxygenated
Blood)

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Phylum Mollusca – Molluscan characteristics

All Molluscs have a similar body plan with three main parts

The foot
• Highly modified among the groups
• Locomotion and attachment
Foot

The visceral mass

• Contains internal organs (digestive,
circulatory, respiratory and reproductive
organs)

The mantle Mantle

• Houses the gills and visceral mass
• Secretes the shell
• Space between mantle & visceral mass
is called the mantle cavity

Phylum Mollusca - Mantle

• Mantle is a fleshy outgrowth of the body wall – covers visceral
mass
• Mantle cavity – space between shell and foot
• Houses the gills, digestive, excretory and reproductive systems
• Secretes the shell, plates, cuttlebone, valves of bivalve
• In some species - zooxanthellae in mantle

Zooxanthellae are tiny, single celled algae

• Like all plants, they convert nutrients

into food using the sun’s energy.

• Because they need sunlight to survive,

they are found close to the surface of
their hosts.
Zooxanthellae

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Shell variations
Class Bivalvia - 2 shells hinged

Nautilus – external chambered shell

Cuttlefish – 1 internal shell

Class Cephalopoda
Squid – 1 internal shell
Phylum
Mollusca Octopus – no shell

Class Polyplacophora - 8 plates

Coiled shell with operculum

Uncoiled shell
Class Gastropoda
Internal shell

No shell

Phylum Mollusca – Radula (feeding structure)

• Radula - toothed tongue (buccal cavity)
• In most Molluscs (not bivalves),
modified in cephalopods etc.
• Ribbon-like membrane with rows of tiny
teeth
• Odontophore - muscular base supports
the radula
• Scrape food off rocks etc.

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Phylum Mollusca - Life cycle

Most dioecious, some are hermaphroditic
The life cycle of a Mollusc (bivalve)
 Female releases eggs, male releases sperm
Trochophore
 Fertilised egg - zygote
 Trochophore larva (free-swimming ciliated larval stage)
 Veliger (motile and pelagic)
 Spat (settles on substrate – shell starts to form)
 Adult

Veliger

What you need to know

• The general features of molluscs

• Knowledge of the 4 classes and how their
circulation systems and attributes of their
shells vary
• Nature of the mantle and the radula in
some
• The generalised Life history of molluscs

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Molluscs part 2 of 3

Class Polyplacophora

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Phylum Mollusca - Polyplacophora - Chiton [poly = many, placo = plate]

General characteristics
• Common on rocky surfaces of intertidal – large muscular foot used
to hang onto rocks (very hard to dislodge)
• Simple head – no eyes
• Herbivorous – rasp algae off rocks with radula
• Separate sexes
• Nocturnal – have a home territory

Head
Mantle cavity

Foot Ctenidia (gills)

Mantle

Phylum Mollusca - Polyplacophora - Chitons

• Shell - 8 overlapping plates 8 interlocking
plates
• Radula – 2 rows of magnetite teeth
and other rows of teeth made from
chitin and magnetic - scrape algae
off rocks
• Mantle (secretes plates) – from foot to the Radula
base of the 8 plates

• Foot - broad & flat - locomotion & adhesion

• Head – simple few sensory structures
• Ink - absent
Water enters
pallial
groove

Head
Water
exists

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The gumboot chiton – largest in the world

Cryptochiton stelleri
there is a fishery for this species – they are eaten like an abalone

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Class Bivalvia

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Phylum Mollusca – Bivalves - Morphology

• Radula – absent – suspension/filter feeders

• Foot - reduced (locomotion in some)

• Head – absent

• Ink - absent

• Open circulatory system

• Gills used for feeding as well as gas exchange

• Locomotion – not much

• Scallop swimming – jet propulsion – escape response from
predators
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRHlEep9iU

Phylum Mollusca – Bivalves (bi = two, valvia = valves)

General characteristics of bivalves
1.
• Freshwater and marine - ~8000 species
• Most are suspension feeders/filter feeders
Where they live (5); 2.
1. Burrowing into sediment (use their foot)
2. Attached to rocks by cement (e.g. oysters)

3. Attached to rocks via byssal threads 3.

4. Free living
5. Some swim using valves e.g. scallops 4.
– escape from predators

5.

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Phylum Mollusca – Bivalves are filter feeders

How bivalves feed (Mussel)
 Two shells open when covered by water
 Water is drawn in through the incurrent siphon
 The water flows across the gills (food is trapped by mucus
which is then carried to the mouth)
 Filtered water passes out through the excurrent siphon

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Phylum Mollusca – Bivalves - shells

• Most obvious thing about bivalves is their shell

• The mantle secretes the shells

• Shells generally made of calcium carbonate Umbo

• Shell protects the animal

Hinge
• Shells held together by hinge – which allows
the shells to gape open so that the bivalve can Direction of growth
feed

• Umbo – oldest part of shell oceanica.cofc.edu

• Shells - held shut by adductor muscles

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Phylum Mollusca – Bivalves - shells

animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu.

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Phylum Mollusca – Three layers of shells

Shell consists of three layers;
1.Periostracum – outside layer of shell (often dark colour)

Periostracum

Mantle folds

Mantle Pallial muscle

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Phylum Mollusca – Three layers of shells

2. Ostracum (Prismatic layer) - densely packed prisms of

calcium carbonate laid down in a protein matrix

Ostracum (Prismatic layer)

Mantle folds

Mantle Pallial muscle

Phylum Mollusca – Three layers of shells

3. Nacreous/inner layer – adjacent to animal - composed of
calcium carbonate sheets laid down over a thin layer of
protein

Hypostracum (Nacreous layer)

Mantle folds

Mantle Pallial muscle

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What you need to know

• The general features of chitons and

bivalves
• The feeding of chitons and bivalves
• The nature of shell deposition and layers
within the shells

Molluscs part 3 of 3

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Class Gastropoda

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Phylum Mollusca – Prosobranchia - (“branch” refers to gills)

• Habitat – terrestrial, marine and freshwater
• Shell – coiled / not coiled / reduced / absent
• Operculum – absent / present
• Head - present (eyes, tentacles)
• Radula – present – used for rasping food Coiled shell

• Foot - well developed used for locomotion

• Mantle - (secretes shell)
• Ink – absent
• Torsion – in some Not coiled shell

Shell with operculum Radula Gastropod with large foot

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Phylum Mollusca - Gastropod - Torsion

PRE-TORSION POST-TORSION

Torsion

Mantle cavity, anus and gills go from posterior to anterior

Prosobranch

Subclass Prosobranchia
Marine, freshwater & terrestrial
gastropods

palagems.com

Sea hare
Class
Subclass Opistobranchia
Gastropoda Sea slugs, sea hares, sea
butterflies & bubble shells)

en.wikipedia.org

Pulmonate gastropod

Subclass Pulmonata
Vascularised mantle - lung

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Phylum Mollusca - Subclass Prosobranchia

Subclass Prosobranchia e.g. Gastropods and slugs
• Detorsion - by some
• Foot – present, often large, used for locomotion
• Head region – tentacles, eyes, radula
• Shells – present (secreted by mantle) or absent
• Gills - present
• Defenses
• Withdraw inside shell and close operculum,
• Chemosensory structures – detect prey and avoid predator
• Some have poison dart e.g. cone shell

Fish – sleeping - drugged – harpooned – envenomated and swallowed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LjnwVxGL0

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYh2zeAsRXY

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Phylum Mollusca – Opistobranchia

Subclass Opistobranchia
(Sea slugs, sea hares, sea butterflies & bubble shells, nudibranchs)
• Detorsion - by some (reversal of torsion)
• Head region – tentacles, eyes, radula
• Rhinophores - on head – chemosensory –sent/taste
• Shells – absent/ reduced internal – no operculum
• Gills - no gills (respire via skin)
• Defences - Ink,, warning coloration, chemical defences
• Cerata - outgrowths – gas exchange / defence
nematocysts (from Cnidarians)
rhinophores gills
rhinophores cerata

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Foot Foot

Phylum Mollusca – Opistobranchia

(Sea slugs, sea hares, sea butterflies & bubble shells, nudibranchs)

A predator of cnidarians
the ‘sea swallow’
Glaucus atlanticus

It eats Physalia and sequesters the

nematocysts for it own defense!

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Phylum Mollusca - Pulmonates

Pulmonata (lack gills - vascularised mantle is a lung)
• Terrestrial, freshwater and marine
• Shell – complete /absent, no operculum lung
• Highly vascular mantle serves as ‘lung’
• Lung opens to outside by pneumostome
• Mucus important for land snails –
find way home, find a mate
• Some limpets are pulmonates! pneumostome

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Pneumostome

Class Cephalopoda

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Phylum Mollusca – Class Cephalopoda – squid, squid, octopus cuttlefish, nautilus

• Mantle – often used for locomotion via jet propulsion

• Radula - present within beak (modified in some)
• Foot – modified into siphon and tentacles - form a group of tentacles around
the mouth - used for locomotion and capture prey
• Head - well developed, sensory structure present, eyes

• Ink – present – for protection You will see a dissection of

the a squid in the lab
• Beak – eating prey

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Subclass Nautiloidea
Chambered shell

Cuttlefish
Cuttlebone

Subclass Squid
Coleoidea Gladius/pen

Octopus – no shell

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Phylum Mollusca – Cephalopod feeding

• Cephalopods are carnivores
• Grasp prey with arms & tentacles, beak kills & tear prey apart

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Beak

Cuttlefish – effective predators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUCduZyCHes
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Phylum Mollusca – Blue ringed octopus

• Found all around the Australian coastline
• Poison in its saliva - targets the nervous system
• Venom contains neuro-toxins – numbness, difficulties breathing and
swallowing, nausea, vomiting, paralysis, cardiac arrest
• No known antivenin for the venom of the Blue Ring Octopus
Patient may appear clinically dead with pupils fixed and dilated -
Rescue breathing required for several hours - till toxin wears out

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Phylum Mollusca – Class Cephalopoda - Locomotion

Cephalopods are excellent swimmers: streamlined body
(except Nautilus); tentacles and fins as stabilizers
Jet propulsion - Expand mantle, draws water in, contract
mantle, force water out siphon
• Cuttlefish, squid – jet propulsion and fins
• Nautilus – floatation, jet propulsion
• Octopus – jet propulsion, and arms (along substrate)

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Cuttlefish Squid Octopus Nautilus

Head &
Large head with prominent well developed eyes
sensory
Beak enclosed in buccal mass
structures
Radula Present, behind the beak. Modified in Octopus (drilling prey)
Foot Modified into siphon and tentacles
Ink Present Absent
Mantle Large, muscular used in locomotion (jet propulsion)
Cuttlebone Gladius/pen
External and
Shell (secreted by (secreted by Absent
with chambers
mantle) mantle)
Fins Present Absent

Arms 8 8 8 Numerous

Tentacles 2 None

Jet propulsion Jet propulsion

Locomotion Jet propulsion (mantle) and fins
and arms (mantle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT97tS_XeaU&feature=related
Octopus – beer bottle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOb2sv3onU
Octopus locomotion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o-OMa53F1s
Squid swimming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8cf7tPoN5o
Octopus getting crab out of jar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daXBUcvCsrE
Siphon, using webbing, inking, open container

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oQBYw6xxc
Mimic squid – lion fish, flat fish etc

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What you need to know

• The general features of cephalopods

• Use of the mantle for jet propulsion
• The skeletal characteristics of the major
groups

Next lecture

Chelicerates & Crustaceans

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