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Page 1: Epifaunal  Bivalves

Epifaunal Bivalves• Their foot excretes tough threads that attach

organisms to rocks in order to prevent waves from washing them away.

• Mussels and Oysters do this but mussels attach to rock whereas oysters attach to each other and build reef structures.

Page 2: Epifaunal  Bivalves

Bivalve Morphology• Two valves are mirror shapes

of each other

• Made of aragonite (calcium carbonate)

• Two valves united dorsally (in the back) along the hinge line by a tough ligament

• Teeth and sockets interlock to prevent shearing between shells.

• Valves open ventrally (at the front).

Page 3: Epifaunal  Bivalves

Bivalve Morphology• Valves are secreted by mantle

lobes

• Attachment of mantle (organism) to shell is marked by the pallial line.

• Valves are closed by the contraction of a pair of adductor muscles.

• When adductor muscles relax, a ligament expands and the shell opens.

• Some bivalves have a pallial sinus showing they had a siphon.

Page 4: Epifaunal  Bivalves

Cephalopods• Cephalon means head, pod means foot• Most highly evolved mollusk• Includes marine predators such as nautiluses, octopuses,

and squid. • Have a head surrounded by a foot divided into tentacles. • Nautiluses have a coiled shell• Squid have a thin shell-type left over inside their bodies• Octopuses have evolved to completely get rid of a shell• Pelagic: Move by creeping on the ocean floor, swimming

with fins, or squirting jets of water.

Page 5: Epifaunal  Bivalves

Nautiluses• Like most cephalopods, they catch

their prey with stiff adhesive disks on their tentacles and tear or bite flesh with their beaks.

• Live in the open ocean and hunts at considerable depths. (5-550 meters)

• Pelagic Nekton lifestyle

• Carnivore and a scavanger

• They move up and down the water column with gas filled chambers (same way a submarine moves up and down). • Decrease air in chamber and you

sink. Increase air and float upwards.


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