Global InformationGastropoda information
| Gastropoda Temporal range:
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| Various gastropods from different types: Black slug (a slug), Haliotis asinina (an abalone), Cornu aspersum (a land snail), Notarchus indicus (a seahare), Patella vulgata (a limpet), and Polycera aurantiomarginata (a nudibranch). | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda Cuvier, 1795[2] |
| Subclasses | |
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| Diversity[3][4] | |
| 65,000 to 80,000 species | |
| Synonyms[5] | |
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Gastropods (/ˈɡæstrəpɒdz/), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (/ɡæsˈtrɒpədə/).[5]
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.[6]
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[3][4] 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.
- ^ Aktipis, S.W.; Giribet, G.; Lindberg, D.R.; W.F., Ponder (2008). "Gastropoda". In Ponder, W.; Lindberg, D.R. (eds.). Phylogeny and evolution of the Mollusca. University of California Press. pp. 201–238. ISBN 978-0-520-25092-5.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Cuvier 1795was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Bouchetwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Solem, A.G. "Gastropod". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ a b Bieler R, Bouchet P, Gofas S, Marshall B, Rosenberg G, La Perna R, Neubauer TA, Sartori AF, Schneider S, Vos C, ter Poorten JJ, Taylor J, Dijkstra H, Finn J, Bank R, Neubert E, Moretzsohn F, Faber M, Houart R, Picton B, Garcia-Alvarez O, eds. (2020). "Gastropoda". MolluscaBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
- ^ Strong, Ellen E.; Schrödl, Michael; Parkhaev, Pavel; Nützel, Alexander; Kano, Yasunori; Kaim, Andrzej; Hausdorf, Bernhard; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Bouchet, Philippe (December 31, 2017). "Revised Classification, Nomenclator and Typification of Gastropod and Monoplacophoran Families". Malacologia. 61 (1–2): 1–526. doi:10.4002/040.061.0201. S2CID 91051256.