Soft-bodied animals, often with a shell, such as snails, clams and octopuses.
Phylum Mollusca. Body plan: foot, visceral mass, mantle and often shell and radula. Classes: gastropods (snails), bivalves (clams), cephalopods (squid, octopus).
Molluscs have a muscular foot and mantle that secretes shell. Gills (ctenidia) exchange gases. Cephalopods have closed circulation and advanced eyes.
Remember: snails, clams and squid share a basic body plan.
Soft-bodied animals, often with a shell, such as snails, clams and octopuses.
Molluscs is one of the 53 topics in Zoology & Animal Diversity. It is rated Beginner, so it suits learners who are starting out in biology. Related topics in this area include Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Animal Respiration, Fish.
Cephalopods have closed circulation and large brains.
Molluscs is a Beginner topic, so no earlier topic is required. Other Beginner topics in Zoology & Animal Diversity that pair well with it include Animal Kingdom, Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Sponges.
The closest topics to Molluscs are Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Animal Respiration, Fish, Cephalopod Intelligence. Comparing them side by side is a good way to see how the ideas connect.
Read the summary and the in-depth section, then use the quick check on the interactive lesson for Molluscs. To practise the whole of Zoology & Animal Diversity, use the Zoology & Animal Diversity quiz.
Molluscs: Soft-bodied animals, often with a shell, such as snails, clams and octopuses. Vertebrates and Invertebrates: Vertebrates have a backbone; invertebrates, which are over 95 percent of animals, do not. Read both side by side and note what each one explains.
First, read the summary and write the definition in your own words. Second, read the in-depth section and note any example. Third, compare it with Vertebrates and Invertebrates and explain the difference aloud. Finally, take the Zoology & Animal Diversity quiz and come back to this page for any question you miss.
Vertebrates have a backbone; invertebrates, which are over 95 percent of animals, do not.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversityGills, tracheae, book lungs and lungs exchange gases in aquatic and terrestrial animals.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversityAquatic, gill-breathing vertebrates, including jawless, cartilaginous and bony fishes.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversityOctopuses and squid have large, complex nervous systems and show learning and problem solving.
🦁 Zoology & Animal Diversity