Mollusca | |
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Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | |
(unranked): | |
Phylum: | Mollusca Linnaeus, 1758
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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.
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