Gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. There are many thousands of species of sea snails and slugs, as well as freshwater snails, freshwater limpets, and land snails and slugs. The class Gastropoda contains a vast total of named species, second only to the insects in overall number. The fossil history of this class goes back to the Late Cambrian. , 721 families of gastropods are known, of which 245 are extinct and appear only in the fossil record, while 476 are currently extant with or without a fossil record. Gastropoda (previously known as univalves and sometimes spelled "Gasteropoda") are a major part of the phylum Mollusca, and are the most highly diversified class in the phylum, with 65,000 to 80,000 living snail and slug species. The anatomy, behavior, feeding, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vetigastropoda
Vetigastropoda is a major taxonomic group of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that form a very ancient lineage. Taxonomically the Vetigastropoda are sometimes treated as an order, although they are treated as an unranked clade in Bouchet and Rocroi, 2005. Vetigastropods are considered to be among the most primitive living gastropods, and are widely distributed in all oceans of the world. Their habitats range from the deep sea to intertidal zones. Many have shells with slits or other secondary openings. One of their main characteristics is the presence of intersected crossed platy shell structure. Most vetigastropods have some bilateral asymmetry of their organ systems. Description Vetigastropods range in size from approximately 0.08 in (2 mm) long in the case of Scissurelloidea or Skeneoidea, to more than 11.8 in (300 mm) in length, as with the Haliotoidea. External colours and patterns are typically drab, but such groups as the Tricolioidea and some ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cornu Aspersum
''Cornu aspersum'' (syn. ''Cryptomphalus aspersus''), known by the common name garden snail, is a species of land snail in the family Helicidae, which includes some of the most familiar land snails. Of all terrestrial molluscs, this species may well be the most widely known. It was classified under the name ''Helix aspersa'' for over two centuries, but the prevailing classification now places it in the genus ''Cornu''. The snail is relished as a food item in some areas, but it is also widely regarded as a pest in gardens and in agriculture, especially in regions where it has been introduced accidentally, and where snails are not usually considered to be a menu item. Description The adult bears a hard, thin calcareous shell in diameter and high, with four or five whorls. The shell is variable in coloring and shade of color, but generally it has a reticulated pattern of dark brown, brownish-golden, or chestnut with yellow stripes, flecks, or streaks (characteristically inte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mollusca
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estimated between 60,000 and 100,000 additional species. The proportion of undescribed species is very high. Many taxa remain poorly studied. Molluscs are the largest marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms. Numerous molluscs also live in freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They are highly diverse, not just in size and anatomical structure, but also in behaviour and habitat. The phylum is typically divided into 7 or 8 taxonomic classes, of which two are entirely extinct. Cephalopod molluscs, such as squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses, are among the most neurologically advanced of all invertebrates—and either the giant squid or the colossal squid is the largest known invertebrate species. The g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Freshwater Snail
Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs to major rivers. The great majority of freshwater gastropods have a shell, with very few exceptions. Some groups of snails that live in freshwater respire using gills, whereas other groups need to reach the surface to breathe air. In addition, some are amphibious and have both gills and a lung (e.g. '' Ampullariidae''). Most feed on algae, but many are detritivores and some are filter feeders. According to a 2008 review of the taxonomy, there are about 4,000 species of freshwater gastropods (3,795–3,972). At least 33–38 independent lineages of gastropods have successfully colonized freshwater environments. It is not possible to quantify the exact number of these lineages yet, because they have yet to be clarified within the Ce ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a small internal shell, particularly sea slugs and semislugs (this is in contrast to the common name '' snail'', which applies to gastropods that have a coiled shell large enough that they can fully retract their soft parts into it). Various taxonomic families of land slugs form part of several quite different evolutionary lineages, which also include snails. Thus, the various families of slugs are not closely related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form. The shell-less condition has arisen many times independently as an example of convergent evolution, and thus the category "slug" is polyphyletic. Taxonomy Of the six orders of Pulmonata, two – the Onchidiacea and Soleolifera – solely comprise slugs. A third fami ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neritimorpha
Neritimorpha is a taxonomic grouping, an unranked major clade of snails, gastropod mollusks. This grouping includes land snails, sea snails, slugs, some deepwater limpets, and also freshwater snails. Neritimorpha contains around 2,000 extant species. Some Neritimorphs are commonly kept as pets. This clade used to be known as the superorder Neritopsina. The clade Neritimorpha is, based on optimal phylogenetic analysis, deemed monophyletic. Etymology The clade’s name, Neritimorpha, is from the Ancient Greek νηρίτης (nērī́tēs 'Nerite') and μορφή (morphḗ 'form'). Geologic History and Evolution Neritimorpha has an extremely rich geologic history, going back to early Ordovician. This clade has been considered to be a leftover of early gastropod diversification. 1997 taxonomy According to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Ponder & Lindberg, 1997) Neritopsina is a gastropod superorder in the subclass Orthogastropoda. The superfamily Palaeotrochoidea is con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Patellogastropoda
The Patellogastropoda, common name true limpets and historically called the Docoglossa, are members of a major phylogenetic group of marine gastropods, treated by experts either as a clade or as a taxonomic order. The clade Patellogastropoda is deemed monophyletic based on phylogenetic analysis. Taxonomy Patellogastropoda was proposed by David R. Lindberg, 1986, as an order, and was later included in the subclass Eogastropoda Ponder & Lindberg, 1996. 2005 taxonomy Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 designated Patellogastropoda, true limpets, as a clade, rather than as a taxon, but within included superfamilies and families as listed below. Families that are exclusively fossil are indicated with a dagger †: *Superfamily Patelloidea **Family Patellidae *Superfamily Nacelloidea **Family Nacellidae *Superfamily Lottioidea **Family Lottiidae **Family Acmaeidae Forbes, 1850 ***subfamily Acmaeinae Forbes, 1850 ***subfamily Pectinodontinae Pilsbry, 1891 ***subfamily Rhodopetalinae Lindberg, 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caenogastropoda
Caenogastropoda is a taxonomic clade, a large diverse group which are mostly sea snails and other marine gastropod mollusks, but also includes some freshwater snails and some land snails. The clade is the most diverse and ecologically successful of the gastropods. Caenogastropoda contains many families of shelled marine molluscs – including the periwinkles, cowries, wentletraps, moon snails, murexes, cone snails and turrids – and constitutes about 60% of all living gastropods. Biology The Caenogastropoda exhibit torsion, and thus are included in what was previously called the Streptoneura (meaning ''twisted nerves''), also known as Prosobranchia (meaning ''gills forward''). Specifically, they are characterized by having only a single auricle in the heart and a single pair of gill leaflets, and are equivalent to the Monotocardia or Pectinobranchia of older authors. Taxonomy The taxon Caenogastropoda was first established by Leslie Reginald Cox in 1960 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heterobranchia
Heterobranchia, the ''heterobranchs'' (meaning "different-gilled snails"), is a taxonomic clade of snails and slugs, which includes marine, aquatic and terrestrial gastropod mollusks. Heterobranchia is one of the main clades of gastropods. Currently Heterobranchia comprises three informal groups: the lower heterobranchs, the opisthobranchs and the pulmonates.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., Valdes A. & Warén A. 2005. ''Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families''. Malacologia: International Journal of Malacology, 47(1-2). ConchBooks: Hackenheim, Germany. . . 397 pp. http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/imis2/ref.php?refid=78278 Diversity The three subdivisions of this large clade are quite diverse: * The Lower Heterobranchia includes shelled marine and freshwater species. * Opisthobranchia are almost all marine species, some shelled and some not. The internal organs of the opisthobranchs have undergone detorsion (unwinding of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word "snail" is used in this most general sense, it includes not just land snails but also numerous species of sea snails and freshwater snails. Gastropods that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are mostly called '' slugs'', and land snails that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are often called '' semi-slugs''. Snails have considerable human relevance, including as food items, as pests, and as vectors of disease, and their shells are used as decorative objects and are incorporated into jewelry. The snail has also had some cultural significance, tending to be associated with lethar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Land Snail
A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as slugs). However, it is not always easy to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less amphibious between land and fresh water, and others are relatively amphibious between land and salt water. Land snails are a polyphyletic group comprising at least ten independent evolutionary transitions to terrestrial life (the last common ancestor of all gastropods was marine). The majority of land snails are pulmonates that have a lung and breathe air. Most of the non-pulmonate land snails belong to lineages in the Caenogastropoda, and tend to have a gill and an operculum. The largest clade of land snails is the Cyclophoroidea, with more than 7,000 species. Many of these operculate land snails live in habitats or microha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Patella Vulgata
''Patella vulgata'', common name the common limpet or common European limpet is a species of sea snail. It is a typical true limpet; a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Patellidae, with gills.Gofas, S. (2014). Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140685 on 2014-10-29 This species occurs in the waters of Western Europe. Radula The radula in this species is longer than the shell itself. It contains 1,920 teeth in 160 rows of 12 teeth each. ''Patella vulgata'' is found attached to firm substrates from the high shore to the edge of the sublittoral zone, although it predominates in areas of wave action. Its shell is conical, up to around 6 cm long, and lacks defined chirality. Common limpets are believed to be able to live for up to twenty years. ''Patella vulgata'' has been the focus of a range of scientific investigation, as far back as 1935. Its development is well ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |