PBS
How the Squid Lost Its Shell
The ancestors of squid and octopus used shells as a form of defense. Pupils learn how cephalopods evolved without shells and the adaptations required to survive without one. Viewers learn how scientists know about these changes and the...
PBS
Molluscs: Blue-Ringed Octopus Warning Coloration
What animal is only eight inches long and can easily kill an adult human? The blue-ringed octopus changes body color before neutralizing any threat, human or not. Observe the drastic changes to body color in a short video.
PBS
Mollusc Animation: Shell Repair
It often feels like homes need constant work and repairs. Mollusks might feel the same way since they continually repair their shells. A video presents an explanation of how mollusks can survive even a deep crack. Viewers observe the...
PBS
Mollusc Animation: Abalone
Three simple yet functional body parts define mollusks. The Shape of Life series presents an animation of the body plan of a specific mollusk, the abalone. Viewers see the inner workings of the foot, radula, and mantle. They understand...
PBS
Molluscs: Octopus Camouflage
A large brain helps the octopus change both color and texture as a form of defense. A video series details the unique features of the mollusks as quick-change artists. It describes the cellular changes and chemical reactions controlling...
PBS
Molluscs: Nautilus Regulates Its Buoyancy
Scientists discovered the key to nautilus buoyancy when they X-rayed the shell of living mollusks. An educational video shares these X-rays and explains how the process works. It connects evolutionary changes, a unique circulatory...
The Brain Scoop
The Magneto Snail! (And Other Marine Gastropods)
Snails range from 0.5 mm to 61 cm long. The video explains the huge variety of snails crawling the earth. It includes snails with iron shells, snails that are venomous, and even snails that collect other snails! It highlights the unique...
FuseSchool
Animal Classification
So many animals, so many characteristics—how do we classify them all? A short tour of taxonomy awaits within a helpful Fuse School video on Evolution. Science scholars see how scientists sort animals into the main classes and what traits...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Molluscs: Blue Ringed Octopus Warning Coloration
Did you know that a blue-ringed octopus has bright blue ring patterning on its body that it flashes to warn off predators? View this video showing how the octopus warns about its very poisonous venom. [0:59]
Crash Course
Crash Course Biology #22: Simple Animals Sponges, Jellies & Octopuses
Hank introduces us to the "simplest" of the animals, complexity-wise: beginning with sponges (whose very inclusion in the list as "animals" has been called into question because they are so simple) and finishing with the most complex...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Molluscs: The Survival Game
An animation showing that molluscs' basic body plan includes a foot for mobility; a mantle that secretes a shell and a radula for eating. Learn that molluscs today show many variations on this original body plan. An abalone escapes a sea...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Molluscs: Nautilus Regulates Its Buoyancy
A nautilus' shell, when x-rayed, reveals the many chambers, which the nautilus uses to regulate buoyancy as it moves up and down in the ocean. Observe this process with this video! [1:54]
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Molluscs: Pycnopodia Chases Abalone
A many-armed sun star hunts an abalone. The abalone twists and turns using its foot and escapes. [2:16]
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Geerat Vermeij, Evolutionary Biologist: Reading a Shell's Story
A video exploring the shells of a mollusc. See Geerat Vermeij observe, with his fingers, mollusc defense strategies as revealed by the design of their shells. For him, shell defense design is analogous to aircraft designed to protect...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Peter Ward, Paleontologist: The Ancient Nautilus
Watch the adventures of Peter Ward in this video. As a paleontologist Peter Ward studied fossil nautiloids for years before he went to New Caledonia to see and trap living nautiloids. He's interested in the adaptations that allowed this...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Mollusc Animation: Abalone
The abalone demonstrates the basic body plan of molluscs. A foot is used for movement. A radula is a scraping tongue, and a mantle secretes the shell. [1:22]
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Mollusc Animation: Shell Repair
The mantle deposits calcium into a protein matrix to make the shell. The inner crystalline structure prevents cracks from breaking the shell, and the mantle continually repairs the shell from the inside. [1:32]