|
Osphradium
The osphradium is a pigmented chemosensory epithelium patch in the mantle cavity present in six of the eight extant classes of molluscs (it is absent in the Scaphopoda and Monoplacophora; most Cephalopoda also lack it, but the nautilus has what appears to be a set of osphradia ), on or adjacent to the ctenidia (gills). The main function of this organ is disputed but it is believed to be used to test incoming water for silt and possible food particles or, in some species, for sensing the presence of light. It is a popular idea among malacologists that the presence of an osphradium should be a molluscan synapomorphy. However, an osphradium is absent in monoplacophorans and scaphopods. Moreover, the differences in enervation of these patches suggest that the osphradium (as a patch enervated from the ctenidial nerve) may be different from another organ sometimes called the posterior sensory organ (PSO) with separate enervation from the lateral nerve cords. Both types of sensory or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemosensory
A chemoreceptor, also known as chemosensor, is a specialized sensory receptor which transduces a chemical substance (endogenous or induced) to generate a biological signal. This signal may be in the form of an action potential, if the chemoreceptor is a neuron, or in the form of a neurotransmitter that can activate a nerve fiber if the chemoreceptor is a specialized cell, such as taste receptors, or an internal peripheral chemoreceptor, such as the carotid bodies. In physiology, a chemoreceptor detects changes in the normal environment, such as an increase in blood levels of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) or a decrease in blood levels of oxygen (hypoxia), and transmits that information to the central nervous system which engages body responses to restore homeostasis. In bacteria, chemoreceptors are essential in the mediation of chemotaxis. Cellular chemoreceptors In prokaryotes Bacteria utilize complex long helical proteins as chemoreceptors, permitting signals to travel long di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epithelium
Epithelium or epithelial tissue is a thin, continuous, protective layer of cells with little extracellular matrix. An example is the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. Epithelial ( mesothelial) tissues line the outer surfaces of many internal organs, the corresponding inner surfaces of body cavities, and the inner surfaces of blood vessels. Epithelial tissue is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. These tissues also lack blood or lymph supply. The tissue is supplied by nerves. There are three principal shapes of epithelial cell: squamous (scaly), columnar, and cuboidal. These can be arranged in a singular layer of cells as simple epithelium, either simple squamous, simple columnar, or simple cuboidal, or in layers of two or more cells deep as stratified (layered), or ''compound'', either squamous, columnar or cuboidal. In some tissues, a layer of columnar cells may appear to be stratified d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mantle Cavity
The mantle (also known by the Latin word pallium meaning mantle, robe or cloak, adjective pallial) is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs: it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of flaps well beyond the visceral mass itself. In many species of molluscs the epidermis of the mantle secretes calcium carbonate and conchiolin, and creates a shell. In sea slugs there is a progressive loss of the shell and the mantle becomes the dorsal surface of the animal. The words mantle and pallium both originally meant ‘cloak’ or ‘cape’; see mantle (vesture). This anatomical structure in molluscs often resembles a cloak because in many groups the edges of the mantle, usually referred to as the ''mantle margin'', extend far beyond the main part of the body, forming flaps, double-layered structures which have been adapted for many different uses, including for example, the siphon. Mantle cavity The ''mantle cavity'' is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Class (biology)
In biological classification, class () is a taxonomic rank, as well as a taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank. It is a group of related taxonomic orders. Other well-known ranks in descending order of size are domain, kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, and species, with class ranking between phylum and order. History The class as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name – and not just called a ''top-level genus'' ''(genus summum)'' – was first introduced by French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in the classification of plants that appeared in his '' Eléments de botanique'' of 1694. Insofar as a general definition of a class is available, it has historically been conceived as embracing taxa that combine a distinct ''grade'' of organization—i.e. a 'level of complexity', measured in terms of how differentiated their organ systems are into distinct regions or sub-organs—with a distinct ''type'' of construction, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molluscs
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The number of additional fossil species is estimated between 60,000 and 100,000, and the proportion of undescribed species is very high. Many taxa remain poorly studied. Molluscs are the largest marine biology, marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms. They are highly diverse, not just in size and anatomical structure, but also in behaviour and habitat, as numerous groups are freshwater mollusc, freshwater and even terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial species. The phylum is typically divided into 7 or 8 taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class (biology), classes, of which two are entirely extinct. Cephalopod molluscs, such as squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses, are among the most neurobiology, neurologi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaphopoda
Scaphopoda (plural scaphopods , from Ancient Greek σκᾰ́φης ''skáphē'' "boat" and πούς ''poús'' "foot"), whose members are also known as tusk shells or tooth shells, are a class of shelled marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Mollusca with worldwide distribution and are the only class of exclusively infaunal marine molluscs. Shells of species within this class range in length (with ''Fissidentalium metivieri'' as the longest). Members of the order Dentaliida tend to be larger than those of the order Gadilida. These molluscs live in soft substrates offshore (usually not intertidally). Because of this subtidal habitat and the small size of most species, many beachcombers are unfamiliar with them; their shells are not as common or as easily visible in the beach drift as the shells of sea snails and clams. Molecular data suggest that the scaphopods are a sister group to the cephalopods, although higher-level molluscan phylogeny remains unresolved. Cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monoplacophora
Shell of Monoplacophora Monoplacophora , meaning "bearing one plate", is a polyphyletic class of molluscs with a cap-like shell, inhabiting deep sea environments. Extant representatives were not recognized as such until 1952; previously they were known only from the fossil record, and were thought to have become extinct 375 million years ago. Although the shell of many monoplacophorans is limpet-like in shape, they are not gastropods, nor do they have any close relation to gastropods. Definition Discussion about monoplacophorans is made difficult by the slippery definition of the taxon; some authors take it to refer to all non-gastropod molluscs with a single shell, or all single-shelled molluscs with serially repeated units; whereas other workers restrict the definition to cap-shaped forms, excluding spiral and other shapes of shell. The inclusion of the gastropod-like Bellerophontoidea within the group is also contentious. One attempt to resolve this confusion was to separ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalopoda
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda ( Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles ( muscular hydrostats) modified from the primitive molluscan foot. Fishers sometimes call cephalopods "inkfish", referring to their common ability to squirt ink. The study of cephalopods is a branch of malacology known as teuthology. Cephalopods became dominant during the Ordovician period, represented by primitive nautiloids. The class now contains two, only distantly related, extant subclasses: Coleoidea, which includes octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish; and Nautiloidea, represented by ''Nautilus'' and ''Allonautilus''. In the Coleoidea, the molluscan shell has been internalized or is absent, whereas in the Nautiloidea, the external shell remains. About 800 living species of cephalopods have been iden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nautilus
A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, type of which is the genus ''Nautilus (genus), Nautilus''. Though it more specifically refers to the species ''chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius'', the name chambered nautilus is also used for any of the Nautilidae. All are protected under CITES CITES Appendix II, Appendix II. Depending on species, adult shell diameter is between . The Nautilidae, both extant and extinct, are characterized by involute or more or less convoluted shells that are generally smooth, with compressed or depressed whorl (mollusc), whorl sections, straight to sinuous Suture (anatomy), sutures, and a tubular, generally central siphuncle.Kümmel, B. 1964. Nautiloidae-Nautilida, in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Geological Society of America and Univ of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ctenidium (mollusc)
A ctenidium is a respiratory organ or gill which is found in many molluscs. This structure exists in bivalves, cephalopods, polyplacophorans (chitons), and in aquatic gastropods such as freshwater snails and marine snails. Certain molluscs, such as the bivalves, possess paired ctenidia, but others, such as members of the Ampullariidae, bear a single ctenidium. A ctenidium is shaped like a comb or a feather, with a central part from which many filaments or plate-like structures protrude, lined up in a row. Some aquatic gastropods possess a single row of filaments on their ctenidium, known as the monopectinate condition, and others have a pair of filament rows, known as the bipectinate or aspidobranch condition. The ctenidium hangs into the mantle cavity and increases the area available for gas exchange. The apple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and lacks Plasticity (physics), plasticity when wet. Silt can also be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth (even when mixed with clay particles). Silt is a common material, making up 45% of average modern mud. It is found in many river deltas and as wind-deposited accumulations, particularly in central Asia, north China, and North America. It is produced in both very hot climates (through such processes as collisions of quartz grains in dust storms) and very cold climates (through such processes as glacial grinding of quartz grains.) Loess is soil rich in silt which makes up some of the most fertile agricultural land on Earth. However, silt is very vulnerable to erosion, and it has poo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
