Other Mollusks

This group gathers Mollusks subcategory members that are genuine mollusks but that this atlas's own sourced descriptions do not identify with one of the four more specific mollusk classes gathered separately above. It spans the tusk shells of the class Scaphopoda, burrowing marine mollusks named for a long, slightly curved, tapering tubular shell open at both ends that resembles a miniature elephant tusk or tooth, and the solenogasters of the class Solenogastres, part of the broader group Aplacophora, worm-like, shell-less marine mollusks covered in fine calcareous spicules rather than a conventional shell of any kind, generally living on or burrowing through soft sediment or preying on the cnidarians they are often found alongside. Every member gathered here is a genuine mollusk by the broad definition of the phylum Mollusca; the split above exists only to keep four especially large or well-known classes browsable on their own rather than to draw a biological line excluding anything placed here.