What are the characteristics of phylum Mollusca?

What are the characteristics of phylum Mollusca?

Mollusca Characteristics

• They are mostly found in marine and freshwater.
• They exhibit organ system level of organization.
• Their body has a cavity.
• The body is divided into head, visceral mass, muscular foot and mantle.
• The head comprises of tentacles and compound eyes.
• The body is covered by a calcareous shell.

What is unique to Gastropoda?

Gastropod mollusks—snails and slugs—use mucus for a variety of functions, including adhesion, predator defense, and reproduction. Their most biomechanically interesting use of mucus is for their unique gliding form of locomotion.

Which of the following belongs to the class Gastropoda?

The Class Gastropoda (in Phylum Mollusca) includes the groups pertaining to snails and slugs.

What features do all the organisms in class Gastropoda share?

All gastropods have a well-developed head with eyes and 1-2 pairs of tentacles. Most gastropods are hermaphrodites, which means that each animal has both male and female reproductive organs in the same body.

What are characteristics of Mollusca that distinguish it from other phyla?

All molluscs have a specialized foot used in digging, grasping, or creeping.

How do the members of class Gastropoda differ from other molluscs?

Gastropods, such as snails, have a single shell that is often coiled. Examples of the variety of shell patterns in the gastropod class are shown in Figure below. In contrast to snails, most slug species have lost or reduced their shells during the course of evolution. Shells from various snail species.

Why are gastropods called gastropods?

The word gastropod comes from Greek and means “stomach foot,” a name that owes its existence to the unusual anatomy of snails. Snails have a broad flat muscular “foot” used for support and for forward movement. This foot runs along the underside of the animal-essentially along its belly.

What are the two characters of phylum Mollusca?

General characteristics of phylum Mollusca: (i) They have a soft, bilaterally symmetrical body with little segmentation and without appendages. Body cavity is haemocoel. (ii) Body is divisible into an anterior head, a ventral foot and a dorsal visceral mass.

What is a gastropods habitat?

Gastropods live in every conceivable habitat on Earth. They occupy all marine habitats ranging from the deepest ocean basins to the supralittoral, as well as freshwater habitats, and other inland aquatic habitats including salt lakes.