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Bivalvia

Polyplacophora

Mytilus spp

Siliqua patula

Cryptochiton stelleri

Species List

Sources

Student pages

Purpose

Welcome to Pacific bivalves and chitons. This is a class web page for the Spring 2008 Marine Ecology field course at the University of Washington, Tacoma created by Elishia Stefanowski.  The bivalve and chiton species encountered during this course and the habitats of the molluscs are explored on this page. Additionally, information on mollusc life history, in particular bivalves and chitons, are discussed. The pictures on this page were all taken by Elishia Stefanowski.

Basic Taxonomy Mollusca

Domain Eukaryota¹

            Kingdom Animaila¹

                        Phylum Mollusca¹

                                    Class Bivalvia¹

                                    Class Polyplacophora¹

Mollusca Characteristics

There are several distinguishing features to the phylum Mollusca including:

• Bilateral symmetric²
• Have a true coelom²
• Not segmented²
• Have a complete digestive tract²
• Mantle, a tissue secretes the shell³
• Foot used for locomotion³
• Radula, a strip of chitin teeth³