Mollusca: Crawl and dive into the

Crawl and dive into the world of the second-largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Differentiate characteristics, adaptations, and habitats of some of the famous and notorious types of mollusks. Moreover, this article discusses less well-known classes of mollusks to deepen our appreciation for these animals. Learn about the diverse and abundant group of animals known as mollusks, which include clams, snails, squids, and octopuses. Explore their unique features, such as a muscular foot, a radula, and a shell, and how they are classified into seven classes. An organism in Phylum Mollusca is characterized by being a soft-bodied, triploblastic, and coelomate animal. Their body is typically unsegmented and divided into three main parts: a distinct head with sensory organs, a visceral hump or mass containing the internal organs, and a muscular foot used for locomotion. A key feature is the mantle, a soft covering that often secretes a hard, calcareous shell for protection. General characters of Phylum Mollusca The name Mollusca (in Latin mollis = soft), was first used by the French Zoologist, Cuvier in 1798 to describe squids and cuttlefish, animals whose shell is reduced and internal or entirely absent. It was only later that the true affinities between squids and multiform and other molluscs such as snails and bivalves were fully recongnised. Next to arthopods from biodiversity perspective, molluscs comprise the largest group of species. Over 160,000 species ...