World of Abalone. Abalone projects in: Facts About Abalone WORLD
SUPPLY OF ABALONE FROM ALL SOURCES the animal kingdom, abalone
belong to the phylum Mollusca, a group which includes clams,
scallops, sea slugs, octopuses and squid. Mollusks are world
wide and predominantly marine. They have a soft body surrounded
by a mantle, an anterior head and a large muscular foot.
Mollusks are best known for their beautifully formed and colored
calcareous shell secreted by the mantle. The abalone join other
snails, whelks and sea slugs in the class Gastropoda. Members of
this class have one shell, as opposed to clams with two, (or the
shell may be lacking altogether, as in the sea slugs). The
spiral structure, so common in snail shells, is flattened in the
abalone and may be obscured by fouling and shell boring
organisms. Abalone are members of the family Haliotidae and the
genus haliotis, which means sea ear, referring to the flattened
shape of the shell. The name abalone is probably derived from
the Spanish-American wor