Marine Biology Mollusk Dissections

While dissecting the Clam and the Squid we learned a lot of things about both of them. Both creatures had different characteristics about them. the Clam had a hard shell with a soft inside, while the squid was predominately all soft except for its hard beak. The word Mollusk means soft thing, even if a Mollusk has a hard shell its inside will be soft, having a soft body is the reason for the name of this phylum. Due to mollusks having soft bodies they tend to be more fragile and more susceptible to predators. The Mollusk can be divided into five different classes including pelecypods, bivalves, Gastropoda, Cephalopds, Polyplacophora.