Phylum Mollusca

Class Gastropoda
limpets terrestrial
snails

sea slugs

sea snails / whelks

terrestrial
slugs
Gastropoda

• The body is asymmetrical

• Distinct head at the anterior end
• Muscular foot in the ventral position
• Undivided shell
 Gastropoda
• Second most diverse group of molluscs:
➢ 60,000 described extant species
➢ 15,000 extinct species

• Occupy a range of habitats

– aquatic (marine & freshwater) and
terrestrial
 DORSAL

ANTERIOR

POSTERIOR

foot head
VENTRAL
 eyes

tentacles
 radula

eyes

mouth
with radula
 Gastropoda
• Visceral mass lies within the shell
• Foot and head are extruded from the shell
during locomotion and feeding
 Marine Gastropoda – limpets

mantle cavity

mouth

gills
foot head
• In some marine forms water is taken in through
an inhalant siphon that lies in a siphonal canal

inhalant siphon

siphonal canal
 Shell
• Most fossil shells can be compared with
fairly similar shells of living forms

Trophon umzambiensis Fusinus, Recent

Upper Cretaceous, Eastern Cape
 Shell

• Consists mainly (96%) of aragonite,

covered with a layer of periostracum

• Marine shells are thicker and heavier

than terrestrial & freshwater shells

• Aragonite is usually recrystallized and

appears as blocky calcite mosaic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropod_shell
 apex

aperture
protoconch
 Larval shell
(Protoconch)

Adult shell
(Teleoconch)
 Form of the shell results from
variations on a very few themes:

• Coiling
• Rate of increase in diameter of the shell
• Shape of the cross-section
• Form of aperture
• Ornament
 Shell coiling
Shell, secreted by the mantle, grows by increments
to the margins of the aperture.
 Shell coiling

cup-shaped

trochospiral

spiral-screwed
planispiral
 Shell coiling

planispiral

spiral-screwed
trochospiral
Gastropods Ammonite

Neosilesites, Cretaceous, Mozambique

Euomphalus sp., Palaeozoic
 POSTERIOR

suture

one
whorl
last whorl

columella

ANTERIOR
X-ray images of gastropods
 Thin sections
Gastropoda

Foraminifera
Shell increases slowly (gradually)

• Last whorl – little

larger than the
previous whorl

Shell increases rapidly

• Last whorl – much

larger than the
spire
Shell increases slowly (gradually)
• Last whorl – little larger than the previous whorl
 Shell increases rapidly
• Last whorl – much larger than the spire
 Spire

depressed

short

high concealed
 Shell coiling

“normal” – one axis

Clements, R. et al. 2008. Further twists in gastropod shell evolution. Biology Letters.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0602
 POSTERIOR

inner lip outer lip

aperture
ANTERIOR
Aperture

entire
 Aperture

short

long

with siphonal canal

Aperture
slit band

exhalant slit

Bellerophon sp.
operculum
Fossil operculum (pl. opercula)

in aperture

isolated
 Orientation
• Asymmetrical

• Left-handed • Right-handed
(sinistral) (dextral) spiral
spiral – rare (aperture on
the right side)
– commonest
 Ornament
• Smooth
• Arranged transversely or spirally
 Ornament
• Knobs, spinose projections
 Mode of life
• All aquatic environments: marine, estuaries
and deltas, freshwater.
• Terrestrial environments
Mode of life
• Most of
gastropods are
environmentally
tolerant

• Certain marine gastropods flourish in clear,

clean, offshore marine conditions
 Mode of life
• Free-living mobile grazers, eating algae,
detritus
• Some carnivorous
Conidae
Mode of life
 Geological history of gastropods

• First recorded in Lower

Cambrian
• Many families appeared in
the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic
• Today gastropods outnumber
any other class of molluscs
 Geological history of gastropods
• Palaezoic gastropods includes both cup-
shaped and spirally coiled shells
• Many forms possessed an exhalant slit, e.g.
Bellerophon and Euomphalus

Euomphalus sp.
Bellerophon sp.
 Geological history of gastropods
• In most Mesozoic gastropods
aperture is entire

• Forms with siphonal canal appeared

in early Mesozoic, became
widespread during Cretaceous
• The dominant Tertiary gastropods
possessed a siphonal canal
• Some early Cenozoic genera (e.g. Fusinus,
Athleta) still survive and distributed now in
subtropical seas

Athleta ficulina Fusinus ambustus