How do you classify molluscs?

Mollusks can be segregated into seven classes: Aplacophora, Monoplacophora, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Cephalopoda, and Scaphopoda. These classes are distinguished by, among other criteria, the presence and types of shells they possess.

What is a snail classified as?

Slugs and snails are invertebrates in the animal kingdom. Phylum: Mollusca Slugs and snails are in the Mollusca phylum. The Mollusca phylum is the second largest of all phyla (plural). Molluscs can be terrestrial (land-living) or aquatic (water-living).

What are the 4 main classes of mollusks?

The major classes of living mollusks include gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods (Figure below).

  • Gastropods. Gastropods include snails and slugs. They use their foot to crawl.
  • Bivalves. Bivalves include clams, scallops, oysters, and mussels.
  • Cephalopods. Cephalopods include the octopus and squid.

Is a snail classified as an insect?

Therefore, a snail is not an insect, but a gastropod. Earlier, we mentioned that snails are classified as phylum Mollusca, which is a taxonomic category of invertebrates. Other invertebrates in this category include clams, mussels, and oysters.

Is a snail a reptile or amphibian?

A snail is not an insect or an amphibian but rather a mollusk that belongs to the class Mollusca. Mollusks are classified as a phylum, the highest degree of classification available.

What are the characteristics of class gastropoda?

Gastropods typically have a large foot with a flat sole for crawling, a single coiled shell that covers the soft body, and a head that bears a pair of eyes and tentacles. However, they are so diverse that some forms lack shells, while animals in one genus have shells with two halves, like bivalves.

What are the 3 groups of mollusk?

The three major groups of mollusks are gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods (SEF ul o pods). The largest group is the gastropods. These are mollusks like snails and slugs that have just one shell or no shell at all. Gastropods creep along on their broad foot.

What is the classification of molluscs?

In fact, some groups traditionally classified as molluscs may have to be redefined as distinct but related. Molluscs are generally regarded members of the Lophotrochozoa, a group defined by having trochophore larvae and, in the case of living Lophophorata, a feeding structure called a lophophore.

What is the meaning of Mollusca?

Definition of mollusk. : any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (such as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell; broadly : shellfish. —.

How did Linnaeus classify molluscs?

Linnaeus (1758) also retained the term Mollusca and included heterogenous soft-bodied forms like tunicates, anemo­nes, cephalopods and polychaeties. 4. Cuvier (1795) threw the modern light on molluscan taxonomy. He divided the Mollusca into Cephalopoda, Gastro­poda, Pteropoda and Acephala.