| |
| | Molluscs (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-15) |
 | | The progenitor of molluscs might have been a vermiform animal, which developed a shell starting from sparse scales on its back, similar to those of the present Caudofoveata and Solenogastres. |
 | | Molluscs have considerable ecological plasticity, and this has probably helped their diffusion and diversification, from sea-bed dwellers to forms adapted to all marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. |
 | | There are about 140.000 living molluscan species, distributed among 8 classes very different in aspect and anatomy, namely the Caudofoveata, the Solenogastres, the Polyplacophora, the Monoplacophora, the Scaphopods, the Bivalvia, the Cephalopoda and the Gasteropoda. |
| www.musei.unina.it /Zoologia/eng/4.2.2.3.1.htm (428 words) |
|