The life of a chiton
Imagine you’re the kind of mollusk called a chiton [(ky]{.smallcaps}
tuhn).
You have a sort of head, a mouth, but no eyes. Your body is a soft,
oblong lump, with no arms or legs. Your head and back are covered with
eight hard, curved shells. The shells fit over one another, like the
armor worn by a knight of old. Your name, chiton, comes from an old
Greek word that means \”suit of armor.”
You move by crawling on your belly, which is the whole underside of your
body. Ripples, made by muscles, move along your belly and pull you ahead
very slowly. As you creep along, your head and back are completely
protected by your suit of \”armor.”
During the day, you hide beneath rocks or find a small hole that you can
creep into. At night you come out to look for food. Your food is mossy
seaweed that grows on the rocks you creep over. To eat, you stick out
your tongue, which is covered with many tiny teeth. You rub your tongue
over the seaweed, tearing off bits and swallowing them.
Or, perhaps you’re the kind of chiton that eats tiny shrimps and other
little creatures. If so, you catch these animals with a kind of net that
grows out over your head.
When you sense danger, you push your belly hard against a rock. Your
belly acts like a suction cup. It holds you so tight that almost nothing
can pull you off. But if you are knocked loose, you curl into a ball so
your \”armor” protects your soft belly.
That’s what it’s like to be a chiton.
