Biology - Chapter 27

Mollusks and Annelids

Charles Page High School

Stephen L. Cotton

Section 27-1
Mollusks
OBJECTIVES:

Explain

how mollusks
perform their essential life
functions.

Section 27-1
Mollusks
OBJECTIVES:

Describe

and give
examples of the three
major classes of
mollusks.

Section 27-1
Mollusks
OBJECTIVES:

Discuss

how mollusks
affect humans and other
living things.

Phylum

Section 27-1
Mollusks

Mollusca- soft-bodied
with an internal or external shell
evolved in the sea over 600
million years ago
have had a long and successful
adaptive radiation
more than 100,000 species
today

Section 27-1
Mollusks
live

everywhere, from deep

ocean trenches to tree tops
range in size from snails as
small as grains of sand to giant
squids more than 20 meters
differently looking; but grouped
together because of similar
development patterns

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Most

have a special kind of

larvae called a trochophoreswim in open water, and feed on
tiny floating plants
Figure 27-2, page 586
trochophore larvae also present
in the annelids, which are also
in this chapter

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Mollusks

are soft-bodies animals

with either an internal or external
shell
name comes from the Latin
word molluscus, meaning soft
some today lack shells (like
slugs), but thought to have
evolved from shelled ancestors

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Body plan consists of four
basic parts: (Figure 27-3, page 586)
1. Foot
2. Mantle
3. Shell
4. Visceral mass

Section 27-1
Mollusks
1. Foot- the soft muscular foot
usually contains the mouth and
other structures associated with
feeding
can take many different
shapes- flat for crawling;
spade-shaped for burrowing;
tentacles for capturing prey

Section 27-1
Mollusks
2. Mantle- a thin, delicate tissue
layer that covers most of a
mollusks body- much like a
cloak
3. Shell- found in almost all
mollusks; made by glands in the
mantle that secrete calcium
carbonate (CaCO3)

Section 27-1
Mollusks
4. Visceral mass- located just
below the mantle in most
mollusks- this area contains the
internal organs
These basic body parts have
taken on different forms as
mollusks adapted to different
habitats

Section 27-1
Mollusks
The

type of foot, and the kind of

shell that mollusks have are
used to group them into the
classes we will study
Feeding: many types of feeding
have developed, and they feed
on many different kinds of food

Most

Section 27-1
Mollusks

mollusks are herbivores,

carnivores, or filter feeders- but a few
are detritus feeders and others are
parasites
some, such as the snails and slugs,
feed with a tongue-shaped structure
called a radula, which is rough like
sandpaper
Figure 27-4, page 587

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Mollusk

herbivores use the

radula to scrape algae off rocks
in the water, or to eat the buds,
roots, and flowers of plants
Mollusk carnivores use the
radula to drill through the shells
of other animals, then swallow
the soft tissues inside

Section 27-1
Mollusks
In

a carnivorous snail called

cone shells, the tiny rasping
teeth of the radula have evolved
into long, hollow darts that are
attached to a poison gland- can
stab prey such as small fish
octopus and sea slugs typically
use sharp jaws to eat their prey

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Mollusks such as clams,
oysters, and scallops are filter
feeders, using their feathery
gills to sift food from the water
cilia on the gills move the
mixture of mucus and food
into the mouth

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Respiration:

gills serve as the

organs of respiration, as well as
filters for food
most only use gills for breathing
aquatic mollusks include snails,
clams, octopus- use gills inside
the mantle cavity

Land

Section 27-1
Mollusks

mollusks such as land snails

and slugs breathe by using a
specially adapted mantle cavity that
is lined with many blood vessels
this

surface is kept moist so that

oxygen can enter the cells
snails and slugs live in moist areas
for this reason

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Internal

Transport: oxygen and

nutrients are transported by the
blood to all parts of the body
pumped by a simple heart
through an open circulatory
system
the blood is not always in blood
vessels, but in sinuses

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Open

circulatory systems work

well for slow-moving or sessile
mollusks like snails or clams
but faster-moving mollusks such
as the octopi and squids have a
closed circulatory system, in
which blood always moves
inside blood vessels

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Excretion:

like other animals,

mollusks must eliminate wastes
undigested food becomes solid
waste that leaves through the
anus in the form of feces
cellular metabolism produces
nitrogen-containing waste as
ammonia

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Ammonia

is quite poisonous, thus

must be removed from body fluids
this is done by tube-shaped
organs called nephridia
the nephridia remove ammonia
from the blood, and release it to
the outside

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Response:

mollusks vary greatly

in complexities of their nervous
systems, and ability to respond to
environmental conditions
clams and other two-shelled
mollusks are basically inactive,
burrowing in mud or sand
have simple nervous systems

Section 27-1
Mollusks
These

inactive forms may have

several small ganglia near the
mouth
a few nerve cords
simple sense organs such as
chemical and touch receptors;
statocysts (for balance); and ocelli
(eyespots)

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Octopi

and other tentacled

mollusks are active and intelligent
predators
have the most highly developed
nervous systems of all members
of their phylum
may be more intelligent than
even some vertebrates!

Section 27-1
Mollusks
They

have numerous sense

organs that help them distinguish
shapes by sight, and texture by
touch
Octopi can be trained to
perform different tasks in order
to obtain a reward, or avoid
punishment

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Reproduction: in most
mollusks, the sexes are
separate, and fertilization is
external
in

snails and almost all twoshelled mollusks, they release

eggs and sperm into open
water in enormous numbers

Section 27-1
Mollusks
In

tentacled mollusks and certain

snails, fertilization takes place
inside the body of the female
some other hermaphroditic
mollusks, such as certain
oysters, switch from one sex to
the other- sometimes producing
eggs, and sometimes sperm

Section 27-1
Mollusks
1. Class Gastropoda- are called
gastropods, the name
meaning stomach foot
appropriate name because
they move by means of a
broad, muscular foot located
on the ventral (stomach) side

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Gastropods include familiar
pond snails and land slugs,
as well as more exotic
mollusks such as abalones,
sea butterflies, sea hares,
and nudibranchs
Figure 27-8, page 590

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Many

gastropods have a onepiece shell that protects their soft

bodies
when threatened, many snails
can pull up completely into their
coiled shells
some have small shells, or like
slugs- lack shells completely

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Most

of these without shells are

not completely helpless
they are protected by behavior,
spending daylight hours under
rocks or logs
some sea hares have a special
ink they squirt into the
surrounding water

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Others,

such as the sea

butterflies, escape predators
by swimming rapidly
many nudibranchs (or sea
slugs), have chemicals in their
bodies that taste bad or are
poisonous; some even have
nematocysts to sting with

Section 27-1
Mollusks
The bad-tasting, poisonous,
stinging, or otherwise boobytrapped nudibranchs are
usually bright colored- this
warns the predators to stay
away
thus,

the shell-less gastropods

do have means of protection

Section 27-1
Mollusks
2. Class Bivalvia- have two shells
that are hinged together at the
back and held together by one or
two powerful muscles
common bivalves include clams,
oysters, and scallops
may be tiny, or like the giant
clam 1.9 meters in length

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Although

bivalve larvae are freeswimming, they soon establish

life at the bottom of a body of
water
some secrete sticky threads to
attach themselves to rocks
most sessile; however scallops
can flap their shells to move

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Mantles of bivalves, like
other mollusks, contain
glands that manufacture the
shells, and also keep the
shells inside surface smooth
and comfortable by secreting
layers of mother-of-pearl

Section 27-1
Mollusks
If

a foreign object (sand or a

pebble) gets caught between
mantle and shell- the mantle
covers it with this secretion
after time, these objects
become completely coated, and
are called pearl
often very valuable

Section 27-1
Mollusks
3. Class Cephalopoda- called
cephalopods, are among the most
active and interesting
includes octopi, squids,
cuttlefish, and nautiluses
cephalopoda means head-foot;
their head is attached to the
foot, divided into tentacles

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Cephalopods

range in size from

tiny cuttlefish less than 2 cm
long, to giant squids which are
thought to grow greater than 20
meters long
they have flexible tentacles
equipped with round sucking
disks to grab fish and prey

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Most modern cephalopods
have small internal shells, or
no shells at all
the only present-day
cephalopod with a shell are a
few species of nautiluses
Figure 27-11, page 592

Cuttlefish

Section 27-1
Mollusks

have small shells that are

found inside their bodies- thin and
coiled
this is the cuttlebone on which pet
birds condition their beaks
this helps the nautilus and cuttlefish
to remain upright and allow it to float
in the water - Figure 27-12, page
593

Section 27-1
Mollusks
However,

there are other means

of protection for cephalopods
can move quickly, either by
swimming or crawling, or a form
of jet propulsion of drawing
water in and then out
changing their color; releasing
dark, foul-tasting ink

Section 27-1
Mollusks
How

Mollusks fit into the World:

feed on plants; prey on animals;
clean up their surroundings by
eating detritus
some are hosts to symbiotic algae
or to parasites; others are
parasites themselves
food for many, even humans

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Can

be a check on pollution
levels, since some are filterfeeding bivalves
snails and other mollusks
never seem to develop cancer;
why is that? Scientists are
interested in finding out!

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Although

beneficial in many ways,

there are also some negative
relationships with humans
land slugs and snails are plant
eaters that do damage to crops
shipworms will damage wood
ships- termites of the sea

Section 27-1
Mollusks
Since many are filter-feeders,
if we eat them, we are likely to
get high concentrations of
pathogens (things that cause
disease), toxins, or pollutants
that can result in sickness or
even death

Section 27-2
Annelids
OBJECTIVES:

Describe

how annelids
perform their essential life
functions.

Section 27-2
Annelids
OBJECTIVES:

List

and give examples of

three classes of annelids.

Phylum

Section 27-2
Annelids

Annelida - segmented
worms, or annelids
approximately 9,000 species
can live everywhere in the world,
except Antarctica and
Madagascar
many are aquatic, thus only a few
species are familiar to us

Section 27-2
Annelids
They are round, wormlike
animals with a long,
segmented body
from Latin annellus- which
means little ring, and refers
to the ring-like appearance
of the body segments

Section 27-2
Annelids
Range

in size from tiny aquatic

worms less than half a millimeter
long to giant earthworms more
than 3 meters
vary greatly in color, patterning,
number of bristles, and other
superficial features
most appear very wormlike

Section 27-2
Annelids
The

many segments of an
annelids body are separated by
internal walls called septa
most of the body segments are
identical to each other, but
some are modified to perform
special functions- first few may
have eyes, antennae, etc.

Section 27-2
Annelids
Feeding:

the digestive tract (gut)

is a long tube within the body
cavity that extends from the
mouth to the anus
Figure 27-14, page 595
pharynx is one structure that
has evolved many different
forms in different annelids

Section 27-2
Annelids
Pharynx is a muscular front
end of the digestive tube
many

can extend it through

the mouth- in many
carnivorous annelids it usually
has two or more sharp jaws
attached to help grab prey

Section 27-2
Annelids
Others

use the pharynx to tear off

bits of algae
some detritus feeders have the
pharynx covered with sticky
mucus to grab food particles;
other detritus feeders use it as a
pump
leech sucks blood from a host

Section 27-2
Annelids

Respiration:

aquatic annelids often

breathe through gills
the feather-duster worms have
brightly colored gills that protrude
from their burrow
Figure 27-15, page 595
others may have delicate gills
located on the side of the body

Section 27-2
Annelids
Many

annelids can exchange

gases through their skin; but the
skin must remain moist to make
gas exchange possible
terrestrial annelids (such as
the earthworm) secrete a thin
protective coating called a
cuticle to hold moisture

Section 27-2
Annelids
Internal

Transport: annelids
typically have closed circulatory
systems organized around two
blood vessels that run the length
of their bodies (Fig. 27-16, p.596)
blood moves toward the head in
the dorsal vessel; toward the
posterior in the ventral vessel

Section 27-2
Annelids
Each

segment has a pair of

smaller vessels called ring
vessels that connect the dorsal
and ventral blood supply
in annelids such as
earthworms, several ring
vessels are larger, more
muscular- often called hearts

Section 27-2
Annelids
Excretion:

like other animals,

there are two types of waste
solid waste passes out through
the anus at the end of the gut
waste from cellular metabolism
are eliminated by nephridia- a
pair of which are in each body
segment

Section 27-2
Annelids
Response:

many annelids are

active animals with welldeveloped nervous systems
brain sits on top of the gut at the
front end of the body
two large nerves pass around
the gut, and connect brain with a
pair of ganglia below

Section 27-2
Annelids
From

these ganglia, a ventral

nerve cord runs the entire length of
the worm
Sense organs are well-developed
in the free-living marine forms
sensory tentacles; statocysts;
chemical receptors; two or more
pairs of eyes (light detectors)

Section 27-2
Annelids
Many

other annelids have much

simpler sensory systems
earthworms have no specialized
sense organs, but rely on
simple sensory cells in the skin
little protection from predators;
burrow or swim away

Section 27-2
Annelids
But,

some annelids do fight back

several carnivorous annelids
use their sharp jaws
the marine fireworms have tufts
of poisonous bristles that easily
break off and penetrate skin,
causing painful sores and a
burning sensation

Section 27-2
Annelids
Movement:

two major muscle

groups in their body walls
longitudinal muscles run from
the front to the rear; when they
contract, the worm gets shorter
a group of circular muscles;
when they contract they make
the worm skinnier

Section 27-2
Annelids
Reproduction:

some are able to

reproduce asexually by budding
most reproduce sexually
some species have separate
sexes and external fertilization
happens in open water
proper timing is essential

Section 27-2
Annelids
In

the South Pacific, islanders

eagerly await the autumn
spawning season of the annelids
called palolo worms
they are considered a great
delicacy to humans, as well as
sea birds and fishes that
gather to feed

Some

Section 27-2
Annelids

such as leeches and

earthworms are hermaphroditic
undergo internal fertilization
however, they rarely fertilize their
own eggs - page 599
when eggs are ready, and band
called the clitellum secretes a
mucus ring

Section 27-2
Annelids
The

eggs and sperms are

secreted into the clitellum
and then the ring slips off
the worms body and
forms a cocoon that
shelters the eggs

Section 27-2
Annelids
1. Class Polychaeta - many
common and important marine
worms; many ocean plankton are
small polychaetes
polychaetes have paired paddlelike appendages on their body
segments; tipped with bristles
that give their name

Section 27-2
Annelids
Note

Figure 27-19, page 599 of

the sea mouse- bristles are so
long they look like hair or fur
the polychaetes live in cracks
and crevices in coral reefs; in
sand, mud, or piles of rocks; or
even in open water
some colorful; others dull

Section 27-2
Annelids
2. Class Oligochaeta - contains
earthworms and related species
examples are earthworms and
tubifex worms- red threadlike
aquatic worms sold as tropical
fish food in pet stores
oligo means few, so these have
fewer bristles

Section 27-2
Annelids
The

bristles (called setae) are

felt as roughness on the ventral
side of the earthworm; help
anchor it in its burrow
mostly found underground
squiggles of mud are sometimes
seen above ground, and called
castings

Section 27-2
Annelids
Eating

materials in the soil, this

passes through; some will be
digested- other indigestible
materials pass out the anus in
large quantities- the castings
some tropical varieties castings
are enormous- 18 cm long, and
2 cm in diameter!

Section 27-2
Annelids
3. Class Hirudinea - contains the
leeches, most of which live in
tropical countries
typically no more than 6 cm
long; some tropical species as
long as 30 cm
most are freshwater organisms

Usually

Section 27-2
Annelids

exist as external parasites,

sucking blood and body fluids from
the host
roughly 1/4 of all leeches are
carnivores rather than parasites;
feeding on snails, worms, and
insect larvae; either swallow whole
or suck soft parts from the body

Section 27-2
Annelids
Leeches

have powerful suckers at

each end of the body
penetrate either by: a) muscular
proboscis, or b) slice into the
skin with razor sharp pair of
jaws
uses its muscular pharynx to
suck blood from the area

Section 27-2
Annelids
A

special secretion from the

salivary gland keeps the blood
from clotting, and it may also
anesthetize the wound- thus the
host does not even know it has
been bitten!
Can

swallow as much as 10
times its weight in blood

Section 27-2
Annelids
Such a huge meal may take
up to 200 days to digest with
the help of symbiotic
bacteria in the gut
may live up to a year
before needing to feed
again

Section 27-1
Mollusks
How

Annelids Fit Into the World

Annelids are important in many
habitats
some are members of the
ocean plankton, where they
are food for many fishes, crab,
and lobster

How

Section 27-1
Mollusks

Annelids Fit Into the World

earthworms condition soil by
burrowing; helps aerate soil
speed the return of nitrogen and
other important nutrients from
dead organisms
thus, spraying insects is not
always good