Portal:Gastropods
The gastropods portalGastropods (/ˈɡæstrəpɒdz/), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (/ɡæsˈtrɒpədə/). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and from the land. There are many thousands of species of sea snails and slugs, as well as freshwater snails, freshwater limpets, land snails and slugs. The class Gastropoda is a diverse and highly successful class of mollusks within the phylum Mollusca. It 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. As of 2017[update], 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, and reproductive adaptations of gastropods vary significantly from one clade or group to another, so stating many generalities for all gastropods is difficult. The class Gastropoda has an extraordinary diversification of habitats. Representatives live in gardens, woodland, deserts, and on mountains; in small ditches, great rivers, and lakes; in estuaries, mudflats, the rocky intertidal, the sandy subtidal, the abyssal depths of the oceans, including the hydrothermal vents, and numerous other ecological niches, including parasitic ones. Although the name "snail" can be, and often is, applied to all the members of this class, commonly this word means only those species with an external shell big enough that the soft parts can withdraw completely into it. Slugs are gastropods that have no shell or a very small, internal shell; semislugs are gastropods that have a shell that they can partially retreat into but not entirely. The marine shelled species of gastropods include species such as abalone, conches, periwinkles, whelks, and numerous other sea snails that produce seashells that are coiled in the adult stage—though in some, the coiling may not be very visible, for example in cowries. In a number of families of species, such as all the various limpets, the shell is coiled only in the larval stage, and is a simple conical structure after that. (Full article...) Selected article Amphibulima browni is a species of small, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Amphibulimidae. This species is endemic to the West Indian island of Dominica. The snail was firstly collected in the late 19th century by biologist A. D. Brown and it was originally described by an American malacologist Henry Augustus Pilsbry in 1899. The type locality is Dominica, the altitude 330 m, "on bananas". The status of this species was somewhat doubtful for a long period, since the snails were not observed and reported for over 100 years after the original material was collected. However, the collection of a few live specimens during recent surveys in the 2000s finally confirmed that this species is still living in Dominica. Amphibulima browni is likely to meet the IUCN-criteria for listing as Endangered species. (Read more...) Selected biography He was especially expert in the land snail families Streptaxidae, Achatinidae and Maizaniidae, and as of 2008, had written 655 scientific publications. (Read more...) Did you know?
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Selected image Two North American freshwater snails of the species Planorbella trivolvis (synonym: Helisoma trivolvis) in a habitat with floating water weeds, which they prefer. These snails have shells up to 18 mm in width, and are sometimes seen in aquaria. These snails belong to the family Planorbidae, the ramshorn snails, which are known for their planispiral, left-coiled shells, for having the red blood pigment hemoglobin, and also as intermediate hosts for various parasites, including medically important ones. Lists of gastropods
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Related portalsSubcategoriesCategories about gastropods: Request to editors: please do not create any more categories of gastropods by country. Instead create list articles, article with a list of the marine or non-marine gastropods of whichever country or area you are interested in. We would also like to empty and delete the two remaining country categories we have, adding that information to list articles instead. Thank you. Things to do
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