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- 1) Class APLACOPHORA (odd, worm-like molluscs) ~250 marine spp
a) small (usually <10 mm long), mostly deep-sea predators; some live intertwined among hydroids & eat polyps, others inhabit burrows in the sediment & eat micro-infauna
b) shell & sometimes gills absent; girdle sometimes bears spicules
c) head & foot reduced or absent
d) radula and ctenidial form link them to molluscs
e) most are hermaphroditic; some species possess a trochophore larva but others exhibit direct development
- 2) Class POLYPLACOPHORA (chitons) ~650 marine spp
a) generally shallow-water or intertidal grazers on hard bottom
b) an unusual 8-plated shell is surrounded by an extensive 'girdle'
c) 8 pairs of pedal retractor muscles connect the foot to the plates
d) multiple ctenidia lie in lateral grooves of the mantle cavity
e) sexes are separate; free-spawning species have a trochophore larva that develops gradually into a juvenile chiton
- 3) Class MONOPLACOPHORA (primitive limpet-like molluscs with an extensive fossil record) only 13 living marine spp.
a) deep-sea grazers on hard bottom; believed to be extinct for over 350 million years (since Devonian) until re-discovered in 1952
b) single cap-shaped shell covers the body, muscular creeping foot
c) their anatomy hints at a segmental ancestry because they have: 8 pr. pedal retractor muscles, 5-6 pr. gills, 6-7 pr. nephridia, 2 pr. gonads, 10 'rungs' in nervous system
d) fossil evidence & comparative anatomy shows they are sister group to all higher Mollusca, which together form the 'Conchifera'
e) early embryology and larval forms (if any) remain unknown!
- 4) SEGMENTAL ANCESTRY
Eight-fold repetition of parts in adult Monoplacophora, chitons, & fossil bivalves, and in larval chitons & Aplacophora, suggests ancestral mollusc may have had a weak eight-fold segmentation
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Copyright © 2002 by A. Richard Palmer. All rights reserved.
(revised Mar. 6, 2002)