Mollusca Temporal range: Ediacaran or Cambrian - Recent
Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
(unranked):	Lophotrochozoa
Phylum:	Mollusca Linnaeus, 1758

Cypraea, the cowrie. About 80% of all known mollusc species are gastropods.

Mollusks are an important phylum of invertebrate animals. Most of them are marine animals, which means they live in the ocean. They have huge numbers in-shore, that is, in shallow water. They are the largest marine phylum, with about 85,000 living species, 23% of all named marine organisms. They also occur in freshwater and on land.

Mollusks are extremely varied: they have great diversity. That may be why there is no word in English for the phylum as a whole. "In an evolutionary sense, mollusks are plastic material". They have much more variety than their ancient rivals, the brachiopods.