Mollusc

Mollusca Temporal range: Ediacaran or Cambrian - Recent
Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
(unranked):	Lophotrochozoa
Phylum:	Mollusca Linnaeus, 1758

Mollusks are an important phylum of invertebrate animals. Most of them are marine animals, which means they live in the ocean. They have huge numbers in-shore, that is, in shallow water. They are the largest marine phylum, with about 85,000 living species, 23% of all named marine organisms. They also occur in freshwater and on land.

Mollusks are extremely varied: they have great diversity. That may be why there is no word in English for the phylum as a whole. "In an evolutionary sense, mollusks are plastic material".^[1] They have much more variety than their ancient rivals, the brachiopods.^[2]

Most molluscs have shells, but some groups do not: octopods, slugs, and the gastropods known as sea slugs.

1. ↑ Morton J.E. 1958. Molluscs. London: Hutchinson University Library, p11.
2. ↑ Cite error: The named reference Barnes04 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).