Channeled Whelk Digestive System
Channeled whelks are carnivorous and can't eat algae or plants.They scavenge for worms, oysters, clams, scallops. and other mollusks. They use their strong foot to pry open mussel shells and clams.
1. Whelks use their sense of smell to determine whether an animal is a prey or a predator; they use their chemoreceptors in that's found in their osphradium, an organ inside the pallial cavity. The pallial The siphon is the elongated tube shaped organ which is the pallial cavity's opening.
2. When approaching their prey, it moves more than 10 cm per minute. When whelk finds its food, the whelk waits in front of it, until the mussel has to open the shell halves. Then it is already too late. The whelk uses its sipho and pushes it between the shell halves to prevent the mussel from closing.
3.After, the snout and the radula follows the siphon. Finally, the whelk uses its sharp toothlets to rip pieces of flesh from its prey.
4. When digesting their food, their mouth, anus, and complex stomach are the main organs used. The cell lining by the digestive glands are used to deliver food to the stomach and then passed into the blood.
5. Materials that weren't digested are compressed and packaged and carried through the anus into the mantle cavity from animals in the water currents.
6.For excretion, the functions are performed by pair of nephridia, "collect fluids from
the coelom and exchange salts and other substances with body tissues as the
fluid passes along the tubules for excretion."
7.The nephridia empties into the mantle cavity.
[1]http://infusion.allconet.org/webquest/PhylumMollusca.html
[2] http://molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/sea/common_whelk.html
1. Whelks use their sense of smell to determine whether an animal is a prey or a predator; they use their chemoreceptors in that's found in their osphradium, an organ inside the pallial cavity. The pallial The siphon is the elongated tube shaped organ which is the pallial cavity's opening.
2. When approaching their prey, it moves more than 10 cm per minute. When whelk finds its food, the whelk waits in front of it, until the mussel has to open the shell halves. Then it is already too late. The whelk uses its sipho and pushes it between the shell halves to prevent the mussel from closing.
3.After, the snout and the radula follows the siphon. Finally, the whelk uses its sharp toothlets to rip pieces of flesh from its prey.
4. When digesting their food, their mouth, anus, and complex stomach are the main organs used. The cell lining by the digestive glands are used to deliver food to the stomach and then passed into the blood.
5. Materials that weren't digested are compressed and packaged and carried through the anus into the mantle cavity from animals in the water currents.
6.For excretion, the functions are performed by pair of nephridia, "collect fluids from
the coelom and exchange salts and other substances with body tissues as the
fluid passes along the tubules for excretion."
7.The nephridia empties into the mantle cavity.
[1]http://infusion.allconet.org/webquest/PhylumMollusca.html
[2] http://molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/sea/common_whelk.html