Sea snail

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about shelled gastropods that live in salt water. For the fish which are also sometimes known as "snails", see Snailfish.
A species of sea snail in its natural habitat: two individuals of the wentletrap Epidendrium billeeanum with a mass of egg capsules in situ on their food source, a red cup coral.

Sea snail is a

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

land snails
.

Anatomy

Sea snails are a very large and diverse group of animals. Most snails that live in

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

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

fossil record
.

The

mollusks you can predict the size the mollusk shell can reach.[1]

Taxonomy

The shell of Syrinx aruanus can be up to 91 cm long.
A 50-second video of snails (most likely
Natica chemnitzi and Cerithium stercusmuscaram) feeding on the sea floor in the Gulf of California, Puerto Peñasco, Mexico
.
Acanthina punctulata has been disturbed, and has retracted into the shell, using its claws to bar the entrance in the same way the snail used its operculum
.

2005 taxonomy

The following

boldface
(some of the highlighted taxa consist entirely of marine species, but some of them also contain freshwater or land species.)

Uses

By humans

A number of species of sea snails are harvested in

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

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

References

  1. S2CID 198421960
    .
  2. ISSN 0076-2997
    .
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