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Well, in terms of the psychology experiment, I definitely was correct in my previous post regarding the argumentative factor of the Echinoderms Vs. Mollusks.

In fact, there is even a blog response by Kevin at Deep Sea News regarding my cavalier attitude on the coolness of snails. After he mentions Endosymbiotic bacteria, I must admit, I am hooked. There is just something really cool about bacteria, so of course the organism harboring them is also cool by proxy.

This is not to say all mollusks take the cake… Here is my rough graph of my opinion.

Mollusca Graph

A strikingly interesting chiton. Credit: Ken-ichi via Flickr

Aplacophora: This class of worm-like sea creatures loses points due to its recent (1987) abandonment of the Echinoderm status. I applaud them for reaching out of the sea cucumber mold and stepping forth as newly classified benthic (deep) beings, but they have fallen in the eyes of some.

Polyplacophora- Chitons are just cool. The prehistoric look of the eight overlapping valves just leaves some people feeling good. Otherwise, the polyplacophora class seems to me like it JUST has chitons in it. Too bad.

Monoplacophora- Limpets we know nothing about. Okaaay… They live in the deep? I suppose they would be really awesome to study, since there is so much to know, but for right now….

Bivalvia- As a seashell collector, I guess I am grateful for the bivalvia class, with its scallops and clam like creatures. Giant clams excite any child’s imagination and some scallops can even swim! However, they lose points because of the invasive actions of mussels. Don’t let mussels take over or the biodiversity will plummet. Mussels are even ruthless to other mussels.

Scaphopoda- These guys are just bivalvia wannabes that look like mini elephants lost their tusks. But the idea of mini elephants losing their tusks does give them a little boost over monoplacophora just for the awesome imagery.

Gastropoda- After hearing so much about snails I bow to their relative awesomeness. Also, I love the word abalone as a journalism word nerd. Plenty of people also like eating organisms from this class and I love looking at the colorful varieties of nudibranch, like the Lemon Peel Nudibranch I saw while diving in the Puget sound. Gastropods take over the land and the sea and many of them are strikingly pretty or quirky and weird. Too bad this class has to include slugs.

Southern Calamari Squid (Sepioteuthis australis). Credit: Richard Ling via Flickr

Cephalopoda- As already said in the previous post, this class includes Octopi and Squid and we’ve already established their coolness. An Octopus is a thing to reckon with, and I would love to see one closer the next time I go on a dive. The Cephalopods are the rulers of the Mollusca phylum.