This week’s post is from Lauren Sumner-Rooney, a post-doctoral researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde. If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. The featured image shows a specimen of a new species of Zetela (a snail), removed from its shell. Image: Natural History Museum, Specimen: Museum National…
Tag: mollusc
Section through an octopus shows the mouth passing through the brain
Octopuses and other cephalopods are well-known for their exceptional intelligence and complex brains, which appear to outstrip all other invertebrates’. But, they work within one strange constraint – like all other molluscs (snails, slugs, oysters and more), the nerve ring at the centre of their nervous system encircles the oesophagus. In cephalopods, this nerve ring…
A fluffy mammal? A furry tail? Believe it or not, this is a mollusc!
Well, this certainly isn’t the image that springs to mind when you think of molluscs – but the more recognisable snails, oysters and octopus only represent three out of the eight living groups. This beautiful creature is a solenogastre, one of the two vermiform (worm-like) molluscan groups. Solenogastres are found in oceans across the world, from…
April fool! This ‘snail shell’ isn’t quite what it seems…
When is a snail not a snail? What if it’s something totally, completely different? This mollusc-like shell was described as a new species of trochid in 1903, but in fact it comes from an entire different phylum (one of the highest levels of distinction between animals). Any ideas what it might be instead? … It’s an anemone!…
Ole’ blue eyes: scallops and clams have unique ‘mirrored’ eyes
It may seem alien, but think about this the next time you enjoy a scallop or a clam: they might be looking back at you. Some species have tens of tiny eyes which line the edges of their characteristic shells. Unlike almost all other adult bivalves, scallops and clams can grow eyes which use a unique…
‘Solar powered’ sea slug uses captured algae to photosynthesise
Elysia chlorotica not only resembles a leaf, but uses plant-type cells to draw energy from the sun, too! This remarkable seaslug is able to extract chloroplasts from the algae it feeds on and incorporate them into their own tissues. The young slugs feed on algae and digest everything but the photosynthesising organelles, which are stored in the…
Juvenile file clam, Lima
Bivalves are molluscs with two shells, such as oysters, mussels and clams. As adults, these are all sessile, unable to move far from their anchor point on rocks and other surfaces. But movement is necessary to avoid overcrowding and food shortages – these animals have mobile larval and juvenile stages which are pelagic (move through the water…
Chiton radula (Chaetopleura articulata) capped with magnetite
Most molluscs (slugs, snails and many shellfish) use a radula to scrape algae and other food from the surface of rocks and shells. It’s a large, complex structure which resembles a giant alien tongue with many rows of teeth, and can be more than half the length of the whole animal! But chitons have an even more…
Shell of the oyster Ostrea edulis, embedded in resin and sectioned to show growth lines.
As molluscs like the oyster grow, so too must their protective shell. Like tree rings, we can use the rings produced by seasonal growth to age these animals. This information is vital to monitoring and sustaining natural and harvested populations. Image courtesy of Dr Lawrence Eagling.
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