Those+Weird+Mollusks

 O GREAT! WEIRD MOLLUSKS...
Regarded as the largest marine phylum, phylum Mollusca contains about 85,000 species. Found in aquatic and terrestrial habitats, phylum Mollusca is divided into 10 classes:

**[| Aplacophora]** - small worm like mollusks, which have no eyes, shell or tentacles.
 * [|Bivalvia]** - clams like the Giant Clam, oysters, muscles, and scallops, which also serve as delicate cuisines!
 * Caudofoveata** - small worm-like mollusks which live buried down in the ocean floor. Very little is known about them.
 * [|Cephalopoda]** - nautilus (Chambered Nautilus), cuttlefish, squids, and octopuses (Blue-Ringed Octopus and North Pacific Giant Octopus.) They are the most neurologically advanced invertebrates.
 * [|Gastropoda]** - They are the largest class of mollusks containing, snails, slugs, whelks, periwinkles, abalones.
 * [|Helcionellioda]** - they are an extinct group of ancient mollusks. They had compressed and spiral shells.
 * [|Monoplacophora]** - one shelled mollusks.
 * [|Polyplacophora]** - they are chitons such as the //Tonicella lineata//.
 * [|Rostroconchia]** - extinct class of mollusks which were originally classified as bivalves.
 * [|Scaphopoda]** - the tusk shells. . [[image:squidward01.png width="140" height="193" align="right"]] Though each class is distinct in its own way, mollusks have some characteristics in common. All mollusks have a soft body //(Latin "mollus" meaning "soft"),// which is covered by a hard calcium shell. However, not all mollusks have shells. In some animals, the shell dissolved through evolution (squids, octopuses, etc.).

- **head-foot** which contains the sensory and motor organs, - **visceral mass** which contains the digestion, excretion and reproduction organs, - **mantle** which is a specialized tissue which secretes the visceral mass and unfolds the shell, - **mantle cavity** which contain the gills. The discharges from the visceral mass go into the mantle cavity.
 * //Mollusks have three distinct body zones://**

These "soft-bodied" creatures have long been a favorite source of food for humans. However, there is a risk when eating these delicious animals - TOXINS, which are often very poisonous. But mollusks are luxury goods- pearls, tyrian purple die, sea silk, shell necklaces, and many more decorate our homes! Remember walking on the beach and discovering those beautiful shells and maybe opening up an clam and uncovering a pearl? Well, those are all mollusks! They dominate the marine life and might be commonly known animals, but they are also, kind of, sort of, actually... pretty **WEIRD**!