In 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 word aulon or aulone.
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