The world's longest-lived mollusk
1. Clams
Physical characteristics: The bright clam is a round clam mollusk with brown and gray shells about the size of a human palm.
Habits and behavior: The clam, which lives on the bottom of Iceland, is the world's longest-lived mollusk and has lived for 507 years. They only grow shells every summer, and when the sea is warmer and food is plentiful, a strip of texture about 0.1 mm thick grows. Clams are carnivores that feed on small benthic organisms.
Habitat and distribution: Clams are found in the deep sea near the Arctic Circle and Iceland.
Conservation status: Clams are not threatened by human activities such as overfishing, but need protection due to their extremely long lifespan and slow growth.
The oldest mollusk in the world
2. Nautilus
Physical features: The nautilus shell can be up to 26.8 cm in size, with a curly pearl-like shell, smooth and curly shell.
Habits and behavior: Nautilus is a "living fossil" in the ocean that has evolved on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, but its appearance, habits and other changes are minimal. In the Ordovician oceans, nautilus were apex predators, feeding on trilobites, sea scorpions, etc.
Habitat and distribution: Nautilus is found in oceans around the world, including the Yellow, East and South China Seas in China.
Conservation status: As a paleontological research object, nautilus is not currently threatened by human activities such as overfishing, but its protection should be strengthened.
The most beautiful mollusk in the world
3. Naked sea butterflies
Physical characteristics: Naked sea butterfly is a sea angel living in the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean water depth of 350 meters, about 2 cm to 3 cm long, is a plankton mollusk. The whole body is transparent throughout, with a pair of wing-like organs.
Habits and behavior: Naked sea butterflies live under the ice of cold seas such as the Arctic and Antarctic, and are hermaphrodites. Transparent throughout, it flutters in the water, and its small wings look like angel's wings when swimming.
Habitat and distribution: Naked sea butterflies are found in the deep waters of the Arctic and Southern Oceans.
Conservation status: Because nudibranchs live in the cold deep sea, human activities have no obvious impact on them, but with climate change and increased marine pollution, the living environment of naked sea butterflies may be threatened and need to be strengthened.
The largest aquatic mollusc in the world
4, King Squid:
Physical characteristics: The king squid is the largest known aquatic mollusc in the world. Adult king squid can be up to 20 meters long, and juvenile king squid can reach 8-10 meters long. Their eyes are very large, about 35 cm in diameter, and the suction cups are more than 8 cm in diameter.
Habits and behavior: King squid lives in the deep sea, resting in the deep sea during the day and swimming to the shallow sea at night to feed. It feeds on fish and can catch prey in pitch-black waters.
Habitat and distribution: King squid usually inhabits deep sea areas and has a wide range of distributions, including the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Conservation status: Due to living in the deep sea, the research of the king squid is difficult, and the current understanding of its conservation status is not clear.
The ugliest mollusk in the world
5. Ship borer:
Physical characteristics: The ship borer is a marine organism with no obvious physical features.
Habits and behaviors: Ship borers are marine organisms that can perforate wood, and when attached to wood, they can dig conical holes in the wood and invade the inside of the wood. When the outside world is unfavorable or attacked by other marine creatures, ship borers will burrow into the inner pores of the wood and secrete calcareous matter to plug the holes to resist the attacks of other creatures.
Habitat and distribution: Boat borers have a wide range and inhabit mainly in the ocean.
Conservation status: Although ship borers cause great harm to wooden boats, they do not have much impact on the natural environment and ecosystem. Therefore, no special attention and research has been paid to the conservation status of ship borers.
The hardest mollusk in the world
6. Scaly gastropod snail:
Physical characteristics: The scaly-horned gastropod snail is one of the hardest mollusks in the world. Their shells are covered mainly with iron disulfide and magnetic pyropyrite, from mineral-rich vents. The shell gives the snail a natural armor that not only defends itself but also causes damage to the claws of enemies attacking it. The head of the scaly-footed snail has two smooth, tapering antennae. They have no eyes and no specialized adapters.
Habits and behavior: The scaly-footed snail is a mollusk that lives near hydrothermal vents in the deep sea floor of the Indian Ocean. They live mainly by eating bacteria.
Habitat and distribution: The scaly-horned gastropod snail mainly inhabits near hydrothermal vents in the deep sea floor of the Indian Ocean.
Conservation status: Due to the special living environment of scaly-horned gastropod snails, the current understanding of its conservation status is not clear. However, due to the increasing number of human activities in the oceans, the threats to their living environment are also increasing, so it is necessary to strengthen their protection and research.
The mollusk with the most teeth in the world
7. Snails:
Physical characteristics: snails are terrestrial shellfish mollusks, their shell shape, size, color, etc. vary greatly, including pagoda-shaped, gyro-shaped, conical, spherical, pipe-shaped and so on. Snails have a very large number of teeth, with more than 25,600.
Habits and behaviors: Snails are chronic animals that are usually nocturnal and hide in leaves, rocks, or soil during the day. They feed mainly on plants, and some snails also eat carrion and other snail remains.
Habitat and distribution: Snails are widely distributed, with about 25,000 species, found all over the world, with thousands on continents alone.
Conservation status: The conservation status of snails varies by species, and some are threatened by habitat loss or anthropogenic fishing and need enhanced protection.
The most toxic mollusk in the world
8. Blue ring octopus:
Physical features: The blue-ringed octopus is small, as large as a tennis ball, and the wrist and foot spread are only about 200 mm. Their body has distinct blue spots, which are their most distinctive feature.
Habits and behavior: The blue-ringed octopus is a predatory animal that hunts small shrimp and crabs and small fish for a living. They ambush their prey, bite and inject toxins to paralyze it, then tear their prey into small pieces with their beaks to devour them, or bite through the exoskeletons of crustaceans to suck up gravy.
Habitat and distribution: The blue-ringed octopus is found in Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Conservation status: The blue-ringed octopus is restricted in collection and trade, but remains threatened by overfishing and habitat destruction due to its wide range and difficult to regulate.
The largest terrestrial mollusc in the world
9. African giant snail:
Physical characteristics: The African giant snail is the largest terrestrial mollusk in the world, usually 7-8 cm long, up to 20 cm in size, and up to 32 grams in weight. Their shells are narrow, tapered, with a length-to-width ratio of about two to one, and the shell is slightly thicker, shiny, and oblong.
Habits and behavior: The African giant snail is a plant-eating animal that mainly eats a variety of plants, including crops, trees, fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, etc. When food is in short supply, they also eat paper and the corpses of their companions, and can even gnaw and digest cement.
Habitat and distribution: The African giant snail is mainly found in tropical and subtropical forests in the African region.
Conservation status: The African giant snail, whose population has declined due to habitat destruction and human hunting, is listed as endangered and needs to be protected.
The smartest mollusk in the world
10. Octopus:
Physical features: the octopus is short oval, sac-shaped, without fins, the boundary between the head and the body is not obvious, the head carcass is about 7-9.5 cm, the head has large compound eyes and 8 retractable wrists.
Habits and behaviors: Octopuses are intelligent and independent animals with "conceptual thinking" and the ability to solve complex problems on their own. They feed mainly on small fish and crustaceans, using jets to escape predators.
Habitat and distribution: Octopuses are widely distributed, mainly in shallow and deep areas of the ocean.
Conservation status: The conservation status of octopuses varies by species, with some octopuses overfished and habitat destruction requiring enhanced protection.