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. , 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
Chrysomallon squamiferum, common name the scaly-foot gastropod, is a species of deep-sea hydrothermal-vent snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Peltospiridae. This vent-endemic gastropod is known only from deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, where it has been found at depths of about 2,400–2,800 m (1.5–1.7 mi). Chrysomallon squamiferum differs greatly from other deep-sea gastropods, even the closely related neomphalines. The shell is of a unique construction, with three layers; the outer layer consists of iron sulfides, 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 with iron-mineralised sclerites. The snail's oesophageal gland houses symbiotic gammaproteobacteria from which the snail appears to obtain its nourishment. This species is considered to be one of the most peculiar deep-sea hydrothermal-vent gastropods, and it is the only known extant animal that incorporates iron sulfide into its skeleton (into both its sclerites and into its shell as an exoskeleton). Its heart is, proportionately speaking, unusually large for any animal: the heart comprises approximately 4% of its body volume. (Read more...)
Selected biography
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1 August 1744, Bazentin, Somme – 18 December 1829), was a French soldier, naturalist, academic and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. Lamarck fought in the Pomeranian War with Prussia, and was awarded a commission for bravery on the battlefield.[1] At his post in Monaco, Lamarck became interested in natural history, starting with botany. After he published a three-volume work Flora française, he gained membership of the French Academy of Sciences in 1779. Lamarck became involved in the Jardin des Plantes and was appointed to the Chair of Botany in 1788. When the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle was founded in 1793, Lamarck was appointed as a professor of zoology.
In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classification of invertebrates, a term he invented. In an 1802 publication, he became one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense. Lamarck continued his work as a premier authority on invertebrate zoology. He is remembered, at least in malacology, as a taxonomist of very considerable stature, having named and described many hundreds of taxa of gastropods and other mollusks. (Read more...) Did you know?
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Lambis crocata, the orange spider conch, is a species of large tropical sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs. This is an Indo-Pacific species which lives in shallow water and is frequently found in coral reef areas. The image shows two views of a shell of this species with the anterior end towards the top of the image. The scale bar is 1 cm long.
Like other species within the genus Lambis, the shell of this species has an extended siphonal canal and finger-like processes that protrude from the edge of the shell aperture, which is a bright orange in color. The shell of this species is in demand as a decorative object, and thus is part of the international shell trade. 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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- ^ Damkaer, David M. (2002). The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A biographical and bibliographical bistory. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. p. 117. ISBN 0-87169-240-6.