Snails

Snails belong to the class1 Gastropoda, a classification2 that includes

land, freshwater3 and sea snails and slugs4. Snails ancestors5 are one of
the earliest known types of animals in the world. There is fossil evidence of
6
primitive gastropods dating back to the late Cambrian period; this
means that they lived nearly 500 million years ago.

Snails move at an incredible slow speed. An average adult moves at a

speed of 1 millimeter per second. While moving, snails leave behind a trail
of slime, a lubricant they produce to allow them to easily move across any
type of terrain without injuring its body. Land Snails arent able to hear at
all. Snail shell is made of calcium carbonate7 and keeps growing as long
as the snail grows. They keep adding more calcium carbonate to the edge
of the shell until the snail reaches adult size.

1 a group of animals that have similar characteristics

2 putting animals into groups
3 water on land like river, lake, pond
4 snail without a shell
5 an animal in the past which a modern animal has developed from
6 early stage of development of an animal
7 a white solid substance that exists naturally as chalk

You will find that snails are the most active at night. They may come out
during the early morning hours as well. Dont waste your time trying to
tell the males and females apart. This is because snails
are hermaphrodites, meaning that they have the reproductive organs of
both sexes on them.

Humans have eaten snails for thousands of years and they are still part of
the cuisine of several European countries. However, people can become ill
if the snails they eat arent properly cooked as some of them can carry a
parasite that can cause meningitis.