Exercise 5:
Higher Invertebrate
Metazoans
(Phyla Annelida and Mollusca)
Objectives
➢ Determine the characteristic features and general morphology
of annelids and mollusks
➢ Classify representative of each phylum
➢ Recognize examples of the major classes of annelids and
mollusks.
Major groups of higher invertebrates
⮚ Annelida
⮚ Mollusca
⮚ Arthropoda
⮚ Echinodermata
⮚ Characteristic feature: A well-
developed circulatory system and
complete digestive tract (muscular,
with mouth and anus)
Phylum Annelida
Setae/ Chaetae
• Eucoelomate and segmented worms
• true coelom
Coelom – body cavity between intestinal wall and body wall
• Bodies composed of series of ring-like segments or
somites
• Many annelids have chitinous bristles or hair-like
structures called setae (chaetae)
• Help in locomotion
• Anchor worm in place
• Deter predators
Somites
Classification of Phylum Annelida
a. Class Polychaeta
b. Class Clitellata
• Subclass Oligochaeta
• Subclass Hirudinea
Class Polychaeta
• Polychaeta is the largest, most Seta
Parapodium
diverse class.
• May be brightly colored, variable shape.
• Polychaetes have some features
other annelids do not:
Cirri
• A well-developed head. (tentacles)
• Paired appendages, parapodia, that
function as gills and aid in locomotion.
• No clitellum. Prostomium
• Many setae
Bispira sp.
Neries virens
Chloea sp.
Class Clitellata
• Clitellum – pronounced cylindrical
glandular regions of the body
• Permanent gonads
Classification
▪ Subclass Oligochaeta (earthworms)
▪ Subclass Hirudinea (Leeches)
Subclass Oligochaeta
- includes earthworms and many
freshwater worms.
• They possess setae, but not as
much as polychaetes
• Conspicuous segmentation
• Absence of head
• Hermaphroditic
• When mating, two worms are
held together by mucus
secreted by the clitellum.
Subclass Oligochaeta
Earthworm
Subclass Hirudinea
⮚ Dorso-ventrally flattened with suckers both end
⮚ Fixed number of segments (34 segments)
⮚ Annuli - secondary subdivisions found in segment
⮚ Absence of parapodia and setae
⮚ Terrestrial, freshwater, marine
⮚ Includes the leeches (Limnotes, Hirudo)
Subclass Hirudinea
• Leeches are hermaphroditic
• Clitellum (only appears during
breeding season), like
oligochaetes.
• Suckers – attachment
• Specialized gut – storing large
amounts of blood.
Phylum Mollusca
• Eucoelomate
• Well-developed circulatory system and a
complete muscular digestive tract
• Soft-bodied animals that are usually protected
with hard shells made up of calcium carbonate
• Internal shells or none at all
• Triploblastic, non-segmented, usually dioecious
• includes snails and slugs, oysters and clams,
and octopuses and squids.
Mollusc Body Plan
Molluscs have a similar body plan with three main parts:
• A muscular foot
• A visceral mass – containing digestive, circulatory,
respiratory and reproductive organs.
• A mantle – houses the gills and in some secretes a
protective shell over the visceral mass.
Classification of Molluscs
• Class Aplacopora
• Class Monoplacophora
• Class Polyplacophora
• Class Bivalvia
• Class Gastropoda
• Class Cephalopoda
Class Aplacophora
• Solenogasters Class Monoplacophora
• Worm-like
• Single cap-like shell
• Live in deep ocean bottoms
• Broad flat foot
• Poorly developed head
• Dioecious
• Lacks mantle, foot, and shell
• Neoplina
• Neomenia
Class Polyplacophora
Plates
• “Chitons”
• Elongated with dorso-ventrally
flattened body
• Head with armor-like eight-plated
shell
• Broad ventral foot – for attachment
• Use radula to scrape algae off rocks
• Ctenidia – gills for breathing
Class Bivalvia
Umbo
• Bivalved molluscs have two Hinge
shells (valves)
• Mostly sessile filter feeders
• No head or radula
• Ctenidia
Growth lines
Class Gastropoda
• Gastropoda is the largest of the molluscan classes.
• 70,000 named species
• Shell-bearing species
• Include snails, slugs, sea hares, sea slugs, sea butterflies.
• Marine, freshwater, terrestrial.
• Benthic or pelagic
Class Gastropoda Spire
Eye
Tentacle
Apex Head
Mouth
Foot
Class Cephalopoda
Include octopuses, squid, nautiluses and cuttlefish.
• Marine carnivores with beak-like jaws surrounded by tentacles of their
modified foot.
• Modified foot is a funnel for expelling water from the mantle cavity.
External morphology of a Squid
Internal morphology of Squid
Gills
Ink sac
