The Molluscs are the most successful of the animal phyla in terms of numbers of species. There are about 110,000 species known to science most of which are marine. They occupy a vast range of habitats however both aquatic and terrestrial, from the arctic seas to small tropical streams and from valleys to mountainsides 7,000 meters high, there are a few adapted to live in deserts and some are parasitic. They also exhibit an enormous range in size, from species which are almost microscopic to the largest of all invertebrates the giant squid which can weighs 270 kg and measures up to 12 meters long in the body, with tentacles as much as another 50 meters in length.