The Metazoa form two main branches; one, Parazoa, is but a small unproductive stock comprising only the Phylum Porifera or Sponges; the other, the great stem of the animal series Enterozoa, gives rise to a large number of diverging Phyla which it is necessary to assign to two levels or grades - a lower, Enterocoela (often called Coelentera), and a higher, Coelomocoela (often called Coelomata).
Certain additional small groups should probably be recognized as independent lines of descent or phyla, but their relationships are obscure - they are the Mesozoa, the Polyzoa, the Acanthocephala and the Gastrotricha.
The group is an isolated one and shows no clear affinities with any of the great phyla.
The structural features which the Mollusca do possess in common with other animals belonging to other great phyla of the animal kingdom are those characteristic of the Coelomata, one of the two great grades (the other and lower being that of the Coelentera) into which the higher animals; or Metazoa as distinguished from the Protozoa, are divided.
The Mollusca agree in being coelomate with the phyla Vertebrata, Platyhelmia (flat-worms), Echinoderma, Appendiculata (insects, ringed-worms, &c.), and others - in fact, with all the Metazoa except the sponges, corals, polyps, and medusae.
