Bivalved molluscs

Code KP999999

See key to Mollusca families

Bivalved molluscs commonly occur in marine and estuarine environments. Four families are known from Australian inland waters and are keyed to family level in the Molluscs Key.

Identification to Bivalvia is relatively easy based on the bivalved shell which covers the whole body. Care should be taken, especially with small specimens, to check the animal is not a crustacean of class Ostracoda (a mussel-shrimp or seed-shrimp). Ostracods have a bivalved carapace and superficially resemble bivalved molluscs, but within the carapace the body is shrimp-like with several pairs of jointed legs.