Assignment of Diversity of Animal

Topic: Gastropoda and its characteristics

Submitted By: Shumaila

Submitted To: ma’am saima Talib

class: Bs Botany

Semester: 3rd

Roll No: 528

The government Sadiq college women university Bahawalpur

Gastropoda
gastropod, any member of more than 65,000 animal species belonging to the class Gastropoda, the largest
group in the phylum Mollusca. The class is made up of the snails, which have a shell into which the animal
can generally withdraw, and the slugs, which are snails whose shells have been reduced to an internal
fragment or completely lost in the course of evolution.
Gastropods are among the few groups of animals to have become successful in all three major habitats: the
ocean, fresh waters, and land. A few gastropod types (such as conch, abalone, limpets, and whelks) are used
as food, and several different species may be used in the preparation of escargot. Very few gastropod species
transmit animal diseases; however, the flukes that cause human schistosomiasis use gastropods as
intermediate hosts. The shells of some species are used as ornaments or in making jewelry. Some
gastropods are scavengers, feeding on dead plant or animal matter; others are predators; some are
herbivores, feeding on algae or plant material; and a few species are external or internal parasites of other
invertebrates.
Locomotion
 An attempt has been made to analyses the kinetic effects as observed on the sole of a
gastropod in locomotion, and to illustrate these effects by analogy with mechanical
models.
 The internal mechanism involves during locomotion an internal force of longitudinal
contraction, and an internal force of extension: the former is considered to be represented
by the contracting longitudinal muscles, the latter is probably produced by hydrostatic
pressure. The external forces acting on the animal at any one moment represent the
balance of the two antagonistic internal forces.
 During normal ambulation in Pomatias elegans the posterior margin of the foot is
exclusively protracted by the longitudinal contraction of the musculature of the foot; the
anterior margin is propelled forward exclusively by the force of extension.
 There is no evidence in favour of an antagonism of longitudinal and transverse fibres in
Pomatias elegans; both sets of muscles appear to contract and relax synchronously in one
half of the foot and to act antagonistically with both sets of muscles in the other half.
 The external forces in Pomatias are set up between one area of fixation and an area of
dynamic friction.
 An experimental analysis of the snail showed the existence of an external force of
extension (longitudinal thrust) acting between the anterior and the central region of the
sole. A similar force of longitudinal contraction (tension) acts between the central and the
posterior end. Both forces are of the order of 2.5 g. in Helix pomatia, and about 1 g. in H.
aspersa.
  A static reaction from the ground has been demonstrated to exist under the relaxed parts
of the sole. This force reaches a maximum at a point near the central region of the foot.
 Dynamic friction has been recorded under the forward gliding zones of contraction.
 Static thrusts are developed between successive areas of fixation in the anterior region,
while similar tensions can be observed posteriorly.
 The foot of the snail as a whole must be considered as a mechanical unit; the individual
locomotory waves do not represent mechanically balanced systems.

Food and Digestive system

 As in all molluscan groups except the bivalves, gastropods have a firm odontophore at
the anterior end of the digestive tract. Generally, this organ supports a broad ribbon
(radula) covered with a few to many thousand “teeth” (denticles). The radula is used in
feeding: muscles extrude the radula from the mouth, spread it out, and then slide it over
the supporting odontophore, carrying particles or pieces of food and debris into the
esophagus. Although attached at both ends, the radula grows continuously during the
gastropod’s life, with new rows of denticles being formed posteriorly to replace the worn
denticles cast off at the anterior end. Both form and number of denticles vary greatly
among species—the differences correlating with food and habitat changes. Radular
morphology is an important tool for species identification.
 Evidently, the most primitive type of gastropod feeding involved browsing and grazing of
algae from rocks. Some species of the order Archaeogastropoda still retain the basic
rhipidoglossan radula, in which many slender marginal teeth are arranged in transverse
rows. During use, the outer, or marginal, denticles swing outward, and the radula is
curled under the anterior end of the odontophore. The latter is pressed against the feeding
surface, and, one row at a time, the denticles are erected and scrape across the surface,
removing fine particles as the odontophore is withdrawn into the mouth. As the marginals
swing inward, food particles are carried toward the midline of the radula and collected
into a mucous mass. By folding the teeth inward, damage to the mouth lining is avoided
and food particles are concentrated. Mucus-bound food particles are then passed through
the esophagus and into the gut for sorting and digestion.
 From this basic pattern, numerous specializations have developed, involving changes in
the numbers, sizes, and shapes of radular teeth that correspond to dietary specializations.
Prosobranch gastropods include herbivores, omnivores, parasites, and carnivores, some
of which drill through the shells of bivalves, gastropods, or echinoderms to feed. Some
gastropods, for example, possess a “toxoglossate” radula that has only two teeth, which
are formed and used alternately. Most toxoglossate gastropods inject a poison via the
functional tooth. Prey selection usually is highly specific. Although many cones hunt
polychaete worms, others prey on gastropods or fishes, using the radular tooth as a
harpoon, with poison being injected into the prey through the hollow shaft of the tooth.
 Several of the large fish-eating cones, which produce a variety of potent nerve poisons,
have been known to kill humans.
 Some other gastropods, such as the opisthobranch Dolabella, have as many as 460 teeth
per row with a total of 25,000 denticles. In terms of feeding, opisthobranchs are
extremely varied. Besides the algae-sucking sacoglossans, Aplysia cuts up strips of
seaweed for swallowing, and a number of the more primitive species feed on algae
encrusted on rocks. Perhaps the majority of opisthobranchs, including the sea slugs, are
predators on sessile animals, ascidians and coelenterates being especially favoured.
Pyramidellids are ectoparasites on a variety of organisms. Some of the pteropods are
ciliary feeders on microorganisms.
 Pulmonate gastropods are predominantly herbivores, with only a few scavenging and
predatory species. Primitively, the pulmonate radular tooth has three raised points, or
cusps (i.e., is tricuspid), but modifications involving splitting of cusps or reductions to
one cusp are numerous. The modification of the radular tooth reflects dietary differences
between species. In particular, with each successive appearance of a carnivorous type
during evolution, the teeth have been reduced in number, each tooth usually having one
long, sickle-shaped cusp.
 Much of the diversity achieved by the gastropods relates to the evolutionary shifts in
radular structure, which have led to exploitation of a variety of food sources. Predators
capable of swimming, surface crawling, and burrowing to capture prey have evolved
among the prosobranchs and opisthobranchs; predators that produce chemical substances
for entering the shells of their prey have evolved among the mesogastropods (family
Naticidae and superfamily Tonnacea), the neogastropods (family Muricidae), and a
nudibranch opisthobranch (Okadaia); and, in the pulmonates, predation and thus a
carnivorous diet have evolved at least 12 times.

The digestive system of gastropods has evolved to suit almost every kind of diet and feeding
behavior. Gastropods (snails and slugs) as the largest taxonomic class of the mollusca are
very diverse: the group includes carnivores, herbivores, scavengers, filter feeders, and even
parasites.

In particular, the radula is often highly adapted to the specific diet of the various group of
gastropods. Another distinctive feature of the digestive tract is that, along with the rest of the
visceral mass, it has undergone torsion, twisting around through 180 degrees during the
larval stage, so that the anus of the animal is located above its head.

A number of species have developed special adaptations to feeding, such as the "drill" of
some limpets, or the harpoon of the neogastropod genus Conus. Filter feeders use the gills,
mantle lining, or nets of mucus to trap their prey, which they then pull into the mouth with
the radula. The highly modified parasitic genus Enteroxenos has no digestive tract at all, and
simply absorbs the blood of its host through the body wall.
 The digestive system usually has the following parts:

 buccal mass (including the mouth, pharynx, and retractor muscles of the pharynx) and
salivary glands with salivary ducts
 oesophagus and oesophagal crop
 stomach, also known as the gastric pouch
 digestive gland, also known as the hepatopancreas
 intestine
 rectum and anus

Reproductive system of gastropods

The reproductive system of gastropods (slugs and snails) varies greatly from one group to
another within this very large and diverse taxonomic class of animals. Their reproductive
strategies also vary greatly, see Mating of gastropods.

In many marine gastropods there are separate sexes (male and female); most terrestrial
gastropods however are hermaphrodites.

Courtship is a part of the behavior of mating gastropods. In some families of pulmonate land
snails, one unusual feature of the reproductive system and reproductive behavior is the creation
and utilization of love darts, the throwing of which have been identified as a form of sexual
selection.

Gastropods are defined as snails and slugs, belonging to a larger group called Molluscs.
Gastropods have unique reproductive systems, varying significantly from one taxonomic group
to another. They can be separated into three categories: marine, freshwater, and
land.Reproducing in marine or freshwater environments makes getting sperm to egg much easier
for gastropods, while on land it is much more difficult to get sperm to egg.The majority of
gastropods have internal fertilization, but there are some prosobranch species that have external
fertilization. Gastropods are capable of being either male or female, or hermaphrodites, and this
makes their reproduction system unique amongst many other invertebrates. Hermaphroditic
gastropods possess both the egg and sperm gametes which gives them the opportunity to self-
fertilize.

Reproductive system in freshwater gastropods

Separate sexes and hermaphrodites

Species in the freshwater gastropod family such as the Caenogastropoda from the class
Prosobranchia, are largely self-fertilizing; however after many generations of selfing, a
physiological barrier halts sperm generation in that organism, and only allows for the
introduction of foreign sperm. Gametes form in the ovotesties, an organ which produces both ova
and sperm, and pass down into the hermaphroditic duct to the albumen gland, the junction of
where the common duct splits to either vas deferens or oviduct, where they are stored until they
are needed for either mating or self-fertilization. It is believed that this junction acts as a
regulatory mechanism via contracting muscles, to help direct sperm or eggs into the correct
ducts.

Mating
The sperm passes into the male duct, or vas deferens, where is receives secretory additions in the
form of mucus from the prostate. After getting modified, the sperm passes into the penis. During
mating season, the glandular cells in the penis sheath and prepuce swell to facilitate eversion of
the penis. The sperm gets pushed through the penis, where they are introduced into the tail end of
its copulatory partner. Within the partner snail, after fertilization from the foreign sperm, the
eggs pass into the albumen gland where they are coated in mucus which forms the egg capsule.

Selfing
Eggs are released immediately before oviposition. Unlike in land gastropod species where
fertilization occurs in fertilization pockets, fertilization in freshwater species happens at the
lower end of the hermaphroditic duct, near the junction. Sperm is deposited into the bursa
copulatrix which opens up into the vagina. The ova then enter the albumen gland to get a nutrient
dense mucus coating which serves to form the egg capsule.