Molluscs

Creatures in the mollusc family, both land and sea.

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Ais forAbalone

An abalone is a very large sea snail. Abalones are a different shape to most snails - they have a wide, flat shell. You can still see the spiral shape in their shell.
Abalones are caught and eaten as food, and their shells are used to make jewellery.

Cis forClam

A clam is related to the snail. Clams have shells in two halves with a hinge joining the halves. Clams don't have eyes or brains.

Cis forCockle

Cockles are related to clams, mussels and snails. They have a shell in two parts joined by a hinge. Cockles burrow into sandy beaches and eat tiny creatures in the water that washes over them.
Cockles can be caught and eaten. They are cooked in much the same way as other similar creatures like mussels.
Cuttlefish are not fish, but are a type of mollusc related to squid and octopi. Cuttlefish have three hearts, blue-green blood and a single bone inside them. You often see cuttle bones being given to budgerigars. They can change colour to camouflage with the environment around them.
Cuttlefish are caught as food and prepared in a similar way to squid.

Lis forLimpet

A limpet is a small, almost flat sea creature with a shell shaped like a flattened cone. They live stuck to rocks on the beach, where the tide comes and goes. Limpets feed by scraping algae from the rock surface using a tough, tooth-like mouth. Their strong grip helps them stay in place even when the waves hit them.

Mis forMussel

Mussel is the common name given to a type of long, thin, black clam that is found stuck to rocks in the tidal zone of coastlines. Mussels are collected for food, and can be prepared in a huge number of different ways.

Nis forNautilus

The nautilus looks like a squid wearing a large striped shell that swims around rather than crawling like a snail. It catches small prey with its tentacles.

Ois forOctopus

An octopus is a creature with eight arms that lives in the sea. The bottom of their arms is covered in suction cups. Most octopi have no bones, so they can squeeze into very small holes to hide. Octopi have three hearts and blue blood. Octopi are distantly related to snails.

Ois forOyster

Oysters are a kind of mollusc that lives in the sea or salty water. Their shell is in two halves like a clam shell, and the oyster can pull it closed. Oysters eat by filtering food from the water that flows over its shell. They live their adult lives stuck to rocks - a young oyster that has just stuck to a rock is called a spat.
Oysters have been eaten for thousands of years. They can be eaten raw, cooked, smoked or as part of another dish like soup.
Periwinkles are a type of edible sea snail. They are found in the shallow water on rocky beaches all over the world.
Scallops are a kind of mollusc related to clams and snails. Their shell is in two halves with a hinge joining them. Scallop shells are a very pretty fan-shape.
Scallops can swim by opening and closing their shells. The muscle that holds the two halves of the shell together is the part that is commonly seen cooked for food, as you can see in the picture.

Sis forSea slug

A sea slug is a soft, slow-moving animal that lives in the ocean and comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. It lives in shallow water, and like land slugs, it doesn't have a shell like other molluscs.

Sis forSlug

Slugs can be found on land and in the water, both freshwater and the sea. They are very similar to snails but slugs don't have a shell, and in fact any land mollusc without a shell can be called a slug. Since they have nowhere to hide inside and can dry out, slugs usually live in moist or wet places.

Sis forSnail

Snails can be found on land and in the water, both freshwater and the sea. A snail without a shell is called a slug. Snails range in size from smaller than your little fingernail to a sea snail that can grow to 30 inches long. The biggest land snail is only grows to 12 inches long. They come in a wide variety of colours and patterns.
Snails have a pair of eyes on stalks and a pair of feelers below them, to stop it bumping into things. It can suck both its feelers and eyes into its body for safety, and it can hide in its shell if it is disturbed. Snails have one foot that they "walk" with. They eat by scraping the top layer of their food with their tongue, which is covered in tiny sharp teeth. If you listen hard to a snail when it is eating, you can hear it scraping.

Sis forSquid

Squid are sea creatures related to the octopus and cuttlefish, which all have eight legs.
Squid move by sucking water into the top part of their body and squirting it out in a jet. They can also squirt ink into the water to confuse anything that is trying to eat it.
The squid in the photo are being cooked on a barbeque.

Wis forWhelk

Whelk is the common name given to a number of different sea snails that are caught for food. The snail most commonly called a whelk is buccinum undatum.