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Gastropods (/ ˈ ɡ æ s t r ə p ɒ d z /), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (/ ɡ æ s ˈ t r ɒ p ə d ə /). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and from the land.
The gastropod shell is part of the body of many gastropods, including snails, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium storage. Some gastropods appear shell-less but may have a remnant within the mantle, or in some cases ...
Portal:Gastropods/Selected picture/1 . The sculpture of this shell of Epitonium scalare is raised vertical ribs which are known as costae.Costae are a common feature in the shells of many species within the genus Epitonium, generally known as wentletraps (a word derived from the Dutch word for spiral staircase).
A shell of Zonulispira chrysochildosa. Turrid, plural turrids, is a common name for a very large group of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks which until recently were all classified in the family Turridae. However, recently the family was discovered to be polyphyletic and therefore was split into a number of families.
Juliidae, common name the bivalved gastropods, is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the superfamily Oxynooidea, an opisthobranch group. [ 2 ] These are sacoglossan (sap-sucking) sea snails, and many of them are green in color.
The shell is of a unique construction, with three layers; the outer layer consists of iron sulphides, the middle layer is equivalent to the organic periostracum found in other gastropods, and the innermost layer is made of aragonite. The foot is also unusual, being armored at the sides with iron-mineralised sclerites.
The teeth of the radula are lubricated by the mucus of the salivary gland, just above the radula. Food particles are trapped into this sticky mucus, smoothing the progress of food into the esophagus. Certain gastropods use their radular teeth to hunt other gastropods and bivalve mollusks, scraping away the soft parts for ingestion.
Photo of an apertural view of Halystina umberlee ... (shell pictured) has unique shell structure among all gastropods? a live Zospeum tholussum ...