Image
Orange mollusc

Molluscs

Mollusc Videos

Phyla

  • Molluscs: The Survival Game

Animation

  • Mollusc Animation: Squid Body Plan
  • Mollusc Animation: Nautilus Body Plan
  • Mollusc Animation: Shell Repair
  • Mollusc Animation: Abalone

Behavior

  • Molluscs: Pycnopodia Chases Abalone
  • Molluscs: Octopus Catching Crab
  • Molluscs: Blue-Ringed Octopus Warning Coloration
  • Molluscs: Octopus Camouflage
  • Molluscs: Nautilus Regulates Its Buoyancy
  • Molluscs: Moon Snail Preys On Cockles

Scientist

  • Peter Ward, Paleontologist: The Ancient Nautilus
  • Geerat Vermeij, Evolutionary Biologist: Reading A Shell’s Story

General Info

  • Image
    Book with pencil

Role in Ecosystem

  • Image
    Bee with arrows around it

Climate

  • Image
    Thermometer and waves

Human Interaction

  • Image
    Human next to globe

Paleontology

  • Image
    Skull of dinosaur
  • Image
    Lesson Plan
    Life in the Fast Lane – From Hunted to Hunter
    Lab dissection of a squid, a member of Class Cephalopoda (along with the octopus and nautilus). Supported by several Shape of Life segments, students interpret squid adaptations as a radical case of divergent evolution: A line of ancestral snails abandoned the life of sluggish grazing and foraging in favor of a new niche as speedy open water predators.

    Full Lesson Plan

  • Image
    Spread out octopus
    Factsheet
    Molluscs: Beauty and Diversity
    The diversity of molluscs shows how a fleshy soft body plan can evolve into a variety of forms.

    Download Factsheet

  • Image
    Closeup of suckers from tentacle of octopus
    Reading
    Molluscs: Armor and Speed, the Survival Game
    "As the tide rises, the closed molluscs opens a fraction to the ocean's food, bathed in its riches. Do not ask what force would do, or if force could. A knife is no use against a fortress."

    Download Reading