4/14/24, 9:58 AM Sea snail - Wikipedia

Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine
gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells,
such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class
Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from
snails primarily by the absence of a visible shell.

Definition
Determining whether some gastropods should be called
sea snails is not always easy. Some species that live in
brackish water (such as certain neritids) can be listed as
A species of sea snail in its natural habitat: two
either freshwater snails or marine snails, and some
individuals of the wentletrap Epidendrium
species that live at or just above the high tide level (for
billeeanum with a mass of egg capsules in situ
example, species in the genus Truncatella) are sometimes on their food source, a red cup coral.
considered to be sea snails and sometimes listed as land
snails.

Anatomy
Sea snails are a very large and diverse group of animals. Most snails that live in salt water respire
using a gill or gills; a few species, though, have a lung, are intertidal, and are active only at low tide
when they can move around in the air. These air-breathing species include false limpets in the family
Siphonariidae and another group of false limpets in the family Trimusculidae.

Many, but not all, sea snails have an operculum.

Shell
The shells of most species of sea snails are spirally coiled. Some, though, have conical shells, and these
are often referred to by the common name of limpets. In one unusual family (Juliidae), the shell of the
snail has become two hinged plates closely resembling those of a bivalve; this family is sometimes
called the "bivalved gastropods".

Their shells are found in a variety of shapes and sizes, but are normally very small. Those living
species of sea snails range in size from Syrinx aruanus, the largest living shelled gastropod species at
91 cm (36 in), to minute species whose shells are less than 1 mm at adult size. Because the shells of sea
snails are strong and durable in many cases, as a group they are well represented in the fossil record.

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The shells of snails are complex and grow at different speeds. The speed of growth is affected by a few
variables such as the temperature of the water, depth of the water, food present for the snail, as well as
isotopic oxygen levels. By looking at the composition of aragonite in the growth layers of mollusks you
can predict the size the mollusk shell can reach.[1]

Taxonomy

2005 taxonomy
The following cladogram is an overview of the main clades of
living gastropods based on the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi
(2005),[2] with taxa that contain saltwater or brackish water
species marked in boldface (some of the highlighted taxa consist
entirely of marine species, but some of them also contain
freshwater or land species.)

Clade Patellogastropoda
Clade Vetigastropoda
Clade Cocculiniformia
Clade Neritimorpha
Clade Cycloneritimorpha
Clade Caenogastropoda The shell of Syrinx aruanus can be
up to 91 cm long.
Informal group Architaenioglossa
Clade Sorbeoconcha
Clade Hypsogastropoda
Clade Littorinimorpha
Informal group Ptenoglossa
Clade Neogastropoda
Clade Heterobranchia
Informal group Lower Heterobranchia 0:51
Informal group Opisthobranchia
A 50-second video of snails (most
Clade Cephalaspidea
likely Natica chemnitzi and
Clade Thecosomata Cerithium stercusmuscaram)
Clade Gymnosomata feeding on the sea floor in the Gulf
Clade Aplysiomorpha of California, Puerto Peñasco,
Group Acochlidiacea Mexico.

Clade Sacoglossa
Group Cylindrobullida
Clade Umbraculida
Clade Nudipleura
Clade Pleurobranchomorpha
Clade Nudibranchia
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Clade Euctenidiacea
Clade Dexiarchia
Clade Pseudoeuctenidiacea
Clade Cladobranchia
Clade Euarminida
Clade Dendronotida
Clade Aeolidida
Informal group Pulmonata
Informal group Basommatophora
Clade Eupulmonata
Clade Systellommatophora
Clade Stylommatophora
Clade Elasmognatha A hermit crab occupying a shell of
Clade Orthurethra Acanthina punctulata has been
disturbed, and has retracted into the
Informal group Sigmurethra
shell, using its claws to bar the
entrance in the same way the snail
used its operculum.
Uses

By humans
A number of species of sea snails are harvested in aquaculture and used by humans for food, including
abalone, conch, limpets, whelks (such as the North American Busycon species and the North Atlantic
Buccinum undatum) and periwinkles including Littorina littorea.

The shells of sea snails are often found washed up on beaches. Because many are attractive and
durable, they have been used to make necklaces and other jewelry since prehistoric times.

The shells of a few species of large sea snails within the Vetigastropoda have a thick layer of nacre and
have been used as a source of mother of pearl. Historically, the button industry relied on these species
for a number of years.

By non-human animals
The shells of sea snails are used for protection by many kinds of hermit crabs. A hermit crab carries
the shell by grasping the central columella of the shell using claspers on the tip of its abdomen.

See also
Freshwater snail
Terrestrial molluscs
Land snail

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Sea slug

References
1. Roy, Rupsa; Wang, Yang; Jiang, Shijun (2019). "Growth pattern and oxygen isotopic systematics
of modern freshwater mollusks along an elevation transect: Implications for paleoclimate
reconstruction". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 532: 109243.
Bibcode:2019PPP...53209243R (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019PPP...53209243R).
doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109243 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.palaeo.2019.109243).
S2CID 198421960 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:198421960).
2. Bouchet, Philippe; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Frýda, Jiri; Hausdorf, Bernard; Ponder, Winston; Valdés,
Ángel & Warén, Anders (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families".
Malacologia. 47 (1–2). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks: 1–397. ISBN 3-925919-72-4.
ISSN 0076-2997 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0076-2997).

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