Some facts about chitons:
- A chiton is a mollusk, meaning it has a soft body and no backbone, and (usually) lives in a shell.
- A chiton has a dorsal shell made up of 8 separate shell plates. (Count them!)
- A chiton also has a "girdle" (tissue) that encircles the dorsal shell and holds it together.
- When a chiton dies, the eight shell plates come apart, because there is no longer any tissue holding them together.
- This chiton's girdle is ornamented. (See all of the furry-looking things around the shell?) Scientists think that the chiton's girdle ornament is for defense or camouflage.
- They can curl up in a ball (like a roly-poly!).
- Chitons do not have heads.
- Chitons make magnetite. They are the only mollusks that do. Their teeth are coated in magnetite, making them harder than stainless steel.
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