Aquatic Invertebrates Codexery

Snail

Shelled gastropods inhabiting land, sea, and freshwater worldwide.

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Snails are gastropod mollusks that can have either lungs or gills for respiration, and these groups are not each other's closest relatives.[1] Most snails possess a radula, a ribbon-like tongue covered with thousands of microscopic tooth-like structures that rips food into small pieces.[2] The term "slug" is applied to gastropods whose shell is not readily visible, but this designation carries little weight in scientific classification.[3][4]

Quick Facts

Smallest land snail
Angustopila psammion, 0.6 mm (0.024 in) diameter
Respiration
Lungs (Pulmonata) or gills; some have both
Feeding structure
Radula with thousands of microscopic tooth-like structures

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Most land snails are herbivorous or omnivorous, but a few species like the rosy wolfsnail Euglandina rosea are carnivorous and prey on other snails.[5][6] Snails can act as intermediate hosts for several human parasitic diseases, including schistosomiasis and angiostrongyliasis.[7] Certain snails of the family Muricidae produce a color-fast natural dye, and ancient Tyrian purple was made from such secretions.[8] The snail has traditionally been seen as a symbol of laziness due to its slowness, and in Christian culture it symbolizes the deadly sin of sloth.[9]

In December 1978, the largest documented land gastropod, an African giant snail (Achatina achatina), reached 39.3 cm in length from its snout to its tail.[10][11] Collected in Sierra Leone during June 1976, that snail—named Gee Geronimo—had a mass of precisely 900 g.[10][11] With a shell that can grow to 90 cm long and a total body mass reaching 18 kg, Syrinx aruanus holds the record for the biggest living sea snail.[12] Measuring just 0.6 mm across, Angustopila psammion—first identified in 2022—is the tiniest land snail.[13]

Dead plant matter is favored over fresh herbs by the grove snail Cepaea nemoralis, and this preference for dead material is more pronounced in adult individuals than in younger ones.[14]

What the cited sources add

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History account notes that eastern land snails will eat or taste many organic and even inorganic materials they can crawl to.[6] Land snails find food using chemoreceptors on their four tentacles, much as mammals use their nose.[6] Snail excrement may appear as a tiny folded rope, and microscopic examination of its contents can reveal what a snail has been eating.[6] Some snails, such as the toothed globe Mesodon zaletus, are found on white-tailed deer scats, while the gray-foot lancetooth Haplotrema concavum hunts live snails and slugs.[6]

Consumption of calcium-bearing minerals provides snails the nutrient needed to build their shells, which are mostly calcium carbonate with a protein outer coating.[6] The broad-banded forestsnail Allogona profunda exhibited homing behavior in an Illinois study.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jörger, "On the origin of Acochlidia and other enigmatic euthyneuran gastropods, with implications for the systematics of Heterobranchia", BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2010, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Floor tiles made of coloured snail poo by Lieske Schreuder - design", 26 November 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Slug vs Snail - Difference and Comparison - Diffen" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "TUATARA: VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2, JANUARY 1982 HOW TO BE SLUGGISH", ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krings, "In slow motion: radula motion pattern and forces exerted to the substrate in the land snail Cornu aspersum (Mollusca, Gastropoda) during feeding", Royal Society Open Science, July 2019; Clifford, "Slime-trail tracking in the predatory snail, Euglandina rosea.", Behavioral Neuroscience, 2003, p. 1086–1095; "Mollusks: Carnegie Museum of Natural History", www.carnegiemnh.org (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "Mollusks: Carnegie Museum of Natural History", www.carnegiemnh.org. facts only, no text reused. carnegiemnh.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia): Background, Pathophysiology, Etiology", Schistosomiasis, 2024-10-29; CDC, "About Schistosomiasis", Schistosomiasis, 2024-06-17; "Effects of Washing Produce Contaminated with the Snail and Slug Hosts of Angiostrongylus cantonensis with Three Common Household Solutions", Hawaiʻi Journal of Medicine & Public Health, 2013, p. 83–86; Mas-Coma, "Fascioliasis and other plant-borne trematode zoonoses", International Journal for Parasitology, October 2005, p. 1255–1278; "CDC - DPDx - Opisthorchiasis", www.cdc.gov, 2019-01-21; en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ziderman, "Purple dye made from shellfish in antiquity", Review of Progress in Coloration, 1986, p. 46–52; Biggam, "Whelks and purple dye in Anglo-Saxon England", The Archeo+Malacology Group Newsletter, March 2006; Moorey, "Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence", Eisenbrauns, 1999, p. 138 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: de Vries, "Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery", North-Holland Publishing Company, 1976, p. 430; Tresidder, "Symbols and Their Meanings", Barnes & Noble, 2006, p. 41; Susan Milbrath, Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars, University of Texas Press, 01/01/2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Largest land snail species", Guinness World Records (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Largest land snail species", Guinness World Records. facts only, no text reused. guinnessworldrecords.com
  12. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fredericks, "How Long Things Live & How They Live As Long As They Do", Stackpole Books, 2010, p. 73 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "New snail species are world's smallest, tinier than grains of sand", National Geographic, 2 Feb 2022 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Snail" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Williamson, "Natural Diet of the Landsnail Cepaea Nemoralis", Oikos, 1976, p. 493–500; Speiser, "Effects of Food Availability, Nutritional Value, and Alkaloids on Food Choice in the Generalist Herbivore Arianta arbustorum (Gastropoda: Helicidae)", Oikos, 1991, p. 306–318 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Snail (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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