The phylum Mollusca is the second largest group of animals and occur in virtually all habitats. Many non-marine molluscs are threatened with more recorded extinctions than all tetrapod vertebrates combined. This text will provide the first general account of molluscs in decades and will include hundreds of colour figures. General chapters bring together a diverse and extensive literature, while taxon chapters provide overviews of their evolution, phylogeny and classification as well as more specific and detailed coverage of their biology (reproduction, feeding and digestion, excretion, respiration etc.), their long fossil record, and their natural history.
Contents
Volume One
Chapter 1. Introducing Molluscs
Chapter 2. Overview of Molluscan Physiology and Genomics
Chapter 3. Shell, Body, and Muscles
Chapter 4. The Mantle Cavity and Respiration
Chapter 5. Feeding and Digestion
Chapter 6. Circulatory and Excretory Systems
Chapter 7. Nervous System, Sense Organs, Learning and Behaviour
Chapter 8. Reproduction and Development
Chapter 9. Natural History and Ecology
Chapter 10. Molluscs and Humans
Chapter 11. Research on Molluscs – Some Historical, Present, and Future Directions
Volume Two
Chapter 12. Molluscan Relationships
Chapter 13. Early History and Extinct Groups
Chapter 14. Polyplacophora, Monoplacophora, and Aplacophora
Chapter 15. The Bivalvia
Chapter 16. The Scaphopoda
Chapter 17. The Cephalopoda
Chapter 18. Gastropoda I — Introduction and the Stem Groups
Chapter 19. Gastropoda II — The Caenogastropoda
Chapter 20. Gastropoda III — The Heterobranchia
Chapter 21. Molluscan Research — Present and Future Directions