Lecture 8 Molluscs

slugs, snails and octopi…
Lophophore (ciliated tentacles for feeding)

Trochophore larvae
Habitat?
Terrestrial
Rocky
shores
Sandy beaches
Open ocean
Fresh
water
Subtidal
(incl. reefs)
Economic importance
 Food
 Jewelry
 Bioprospecting
… but also….
• Shipworms
• Gardens & crops
• Hosts for parasites
• Prey on prized species
Basic morphology
 Triploblastic, coelomate bilaterally symmetrical,
cephalization
 Small coelomic cavity around heart and some intestines
 Head, foot & visceral mass (& shell)

Ancestral body
to
modern body
plans
Respiration
 Aquatic: Ctenidia* = ciliated gills or…
 Land: ‘vascularized mantle cavity’, body surface or
mantle
General circulatory systems
Haemocoel = reduced coelom, fluid-filled spaces within tissue of animals with an open circulation.
Haemocoel*
Molluscs … BUT Cephalopods different

Circulation
 Most molluscs – open circulatory system
 blood from heart, through arteries to
tissue spaces and haemocoel (blood
sinuses)
 Squid and octopods have closed

circulatory system
 2 x branchial hearts +
 1x systemic heart
Nervous system
 Circumoesophageal ring + 2 paired cords…

 Ventral - control foot
 Dorsal - control viscera
 Sense organs:
 Photosensory receptors (eyes)
 Tentacles (touch)
 Statocysts (balance)
 Osphradia (chemo reception ~ smell)
Feeding modes
 Filter-feeders
 Bivalves
 Gills & style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVDwlrSq5U
 Herbivores
 Chitons, limpets & winkles
 Radula (scraping teeth)
 Carnivores https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHMGSI_h0Q
 Whelks, nudibranchs & cephalopods
 Poison, radula / beak & tentacles
Excretion
 Kidneys - nephridial system (glandular)

 Coelomic fluid through nephrostome
via a duct into kidney sac
 Reabsorption…
 Urine voided via renal pores
(nephridiopores) in mantle cavity
Reproduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_0XRRHAFU
Marine:
 Dioecious (but diverse)
Pulmonates:
• Hermaphrodites
 Fertilization external (cephalopods – internal)
• Internal Fert.
 External - Broadcast spawning • No larval stages
 Diverse (ecosystem dependent)
 Kidney ducts can serve as egg and sperm dischargers
 Free-swimming trochophore (and sometimes veliger)
Molluscan Classes
 Caudofoveata  Polyplacophora
 Solenogastres  Gastropoda
 Monoplacophora  Bivalvia
 Scaphopoda
 Cephalopoda
Poly=many
Placo= plate
Phora= bearing Class Polyplacophora Chitons
Cross section
 Eight-plated
 Inter- /infra-tidal
 Herbivorous (radula)
Ventral view
 Mantle forms a girdle
 Trochophore larvae only
Dinoplax gigas
Gastro=stomach
Poda=foot
Class Gastropoda
Snails, slugs, nudibranches, sea hares, limpets, whelks and winkles
Anatomy of a gastropod
Land snail: hermaphrodite
Torsion
Twisting the gastropod visceral mass 180o
Torsion takes place in the veliger stage…

Ontogenetic torsion
Ontogenetic torsion
 Advantage to larva?
 Protracting visceral mass
 Protected from predators
Evolutionary effects of torsion
Positive:
 Adult snail - pull head into the protective shell

 Soft parts covered with operculum
 Osphridia (chemoreception) - anterior of the shell
 Gills can receive clean water
Negative:
 Defecating on head
Evolutionary torsion?
What did torsion look like over multiple adult generations…
E. Detorsion
1. Rearrange exhalant current through central opening on top
2. Divert exhalant current (and gills) side-ways
3. Directed flow through inhalant & exhalent siphon (but lose a gill)
4. Detorsion – reverse the torsion
Shell Spiraling / Coiling
 Separate from torsion

 Originated before torsion
 Ancestor
 Bilateral symmetry
 Planospiral (A)
 Modern forms
 Helically coiled on a tilted axis (C)
 More compact shell
 Loss of organs in the right side of the mantle
 Bilateral asymmetry
Molluscan Classes
 Caudofoveata  Polyplacophora
 Solenogastres  Gastropoda
 Monoplacophora  Bivalvia
 Scaphopoda
 Cephalopoda
Basic morphology
 Triploblastic, coelomate bilaterally symmetrical,
cephalization
 Small coelomic cavity around heart and some intestines
 Head, foot & visceral mass (& shell)

Classification Gastropoda
“Stomach-on-foot”
Subclasses:
1. Prosobranchia (~ “front gills”)
2. Heterobranchia (~ “alternative gills”)

I. Opisthobranchia (~ “back gills”)
II. Pulmonata (~ “lungs”)
Subclass: Prosobranchia
“Front gilled”
Winkles, whelks & limpets
• Undergo torsion
• Mantle above head
• Usually 1 ctenidium & 1 nephridium Limpets
Whelks (carnivorous)
Winkles (herbivorous)
Subclass: Heterobranchia
• Detorsion (90o / 180o)

• Shell reduced/lost
• Bilateral symmetry
Nudibranchs
( naked gills )
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Land snails, slugs false limpets
 No ctenidia or operculum
 Mantle modified into respiratory sac
 Hermaphrodites with no larvae
Hermit crabs are NOT molluscs!
Clams, mussels, scallops and oysters
Class Bivalvia
• Hinged dorsally
• Lateral shells
• Laterally compressed
• Head greatly reduced
• Gills – also filter feeding
Bivalve body plan (2 forms)
Mobile form
“Sessile form”
Class Cephalopoda
Octopus, squid & cuttlefish
CLASS Cephalopoda
Cephalopod classification
3 subclasses
Subclass Subclass
Ammonoidea Nautiloidea
(extinct) (3 extant spp.)
Cephalopod classification
Subclass Coleoidea
Cephalopod buoyancy
NAUTILOIDEA
Siphuncle for buoyancy control
Ammonites…
Characteristics
• Triploblastic & coelomate (small)

• Bilateral symmetry & unsegmented
• Soft body with shell

– Mostly external (secreted by mantle)
• Head, foot & visceral hump

Characteristics
• Through-gut & most have a radula
– Herbivores, scavengers & predators
– NOT Filter-feeders & cephalopods
• Mantle & mantle cavity

– Ctenidia (ciliated gills)
– Osphradia (chemosensory organs)
– Flushes out waste (anus & nephridopores)
– Creates jet propulsion in cephalopods
Characteristics
• (Meta)nephridia (kidneys) for excretion

• Well developed senses
• Haemocoel
• Open blood circulatory system
• Sexual reproduction
• Broadcast spawners, internal fertilization or
hermaphrodites
• Trocophore & veliger larvae (or none)
“Outside Anus” Animals
Bryozoa: moss/lace animals
Do not confuse with colonial cnidarians

 Aquatic, encrust hard surfaces
 “Colonial mollusc look-alikes”
 Jack-in-the-box & tentacles are ciliated
“Arm-foots”
Lamp Shells
 Attached, shallow benthic, marine
 Directly, or indirectly (pedicle – fleshy stalk)
 “Bivalve look-alikes”
 But... Dorsoventrally flattened
 Lophophores for feeding
Digestive
gland
Pedicel
 CLASS: articulata
 Hinge & interlocking
 CLASS: inarticulata
 Muscles only

Lecture 8 Molluscs

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slugs, snails and octopi…

Lophophore (ciliated tentacles for feeding)

 Head, foot & visceral mass (& shell)

Molluscs … BUT Cephalopods different

 Squid and octopods have closed

 Circumoesophageal ring + 2 paired cords…

 Kidneys - nephridial system (glandular)

Torsion takes place in the veliger stage…

 Adult snail - pull head into the protective shell

 Separate from torsion

 Head, foot & visceral mass (& shell)

1. Prosobranchia (~ “front gills”)

2. Heterobranchia (~ “alternative gills”)

• Detorsion (90o / 180o)

Land snails, slugs false limpets

• Triploblastic & coelomate (small)

• Soft body with shell

• Head, foot & visceral hump

• Mantle & mantle cavity

• (Meta)nephridia (kidneys) for excretion

Do not confuse with colonial cnidarians

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