Gastropod Anatomy

A snail cannot leave its shell any more easily than humans can leave their fingernails. Some gastropods are scavengers feeding on dead plant or animal matter.

Pdf Anatomy Of Marine Gastropods Without Dissection

Gastropods are characterised by the possession of a single often coiled shell although this is lost in some slug groups and a body that has undergone torsion so that the pallial cavity faces forwards.

Gastropod anatomy. A snails circulation basically is open. That means that snails may have some important blood vessels such as the pulmonary vein leading from the lung to the heart and the main artery or aorta but the blood circulates freely between the organs. Land snails have a coiled shell to which their body is attached by a strong muscle.

They have a well developed head that bears eyes and a pair of tentacles cephalic tentacles and a muscular foot used for creeping in most species while in some it is modified for swimming or burrowing. Externally it produces and secretes calcium carbonate and lime which hardens into a protective shell in many gastropod species. Internally the mantle contains the visceral mass.

The shells of some species are used as ornaments or in making jewelry. And a few species are external or internal parasites of other invertebrates. This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater from freshwater and from the land.

The snail can withdraw its body completely into the shell when it is resting or protecting itself from a predator. The gastropods ˈ ɡ æ s t r oʊ p ɒ d z more commonly known as snails and slugs belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum mollusca called gastropoda. Some are herbivores feeding on algae or plant material.

The shell stays with the snail for its life. General anatomy of a gastropod in a typical shelled gastropod such as the snail the soft body parts include those that normally extend outside the shell the head and foot and those that remain inside the mantle and visceral mass. In shelled gastropods its the part of the body that always remains inside the shell.

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