Gastropods

Information about Gastropods:

Gastropods are a large class in the phylum of Mollusks. These are typically limpets, snails and slugs, both terrestrial and aquatic. Their numbers are so large, they are second in the animal kingdom only to the insects in total numbers, with roughly 85,000 species identified and an estimated 240,000 species yet to be. While snails are often encountered on land, about 2/3rd of all gastropods live in the oceans. They have colonized virtually every possible environmental niche on the planet except of the extreme polar regions.

They are very ancient invertebrates, and they can be traced using the fossil record back to the Late Cambrian, which was thought to be about 570 million years ago. Gastropods are found in many different environments, and noted for many of the species like snails, conches, periwinkles, abalone and whelks for producing their own shells. Gastropods without shells are generally considered ‘slugs.’ Nudibranches are an examples of this, some of which are highly colorful. Most marine gastropods have separate sexes, whereas many terrestrial species are hermaphroditic.