Gastropods are distributed throughout the ocean, and on land, essentially everywhere except the most extreme polar regions. They occur as far north as Point Barrow, Alaska (USA) at 71°23′20″N (J. Nekola, personal communication, January 17, 2011) and as far south as the sub-Antarctic islands (Solem & van Bruggen, 1984). They do not occur on the Antarctic continent.

Holotype for
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Preparation: Dry; Ethanol - 90%; Alcohol (Ethanol)
Collector(s): R. Hershler & C. Hansen
Year Collected: 2010
Locality: Spring brook entering east side of South Fork Owyhee River, Elko County, Nevada, United States

Holotype for
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Preparation: Dry
Collector(s): W. Turton
Locality: Port Alfred, Near Grahamstown, South Africa
Microhabitat: Freshwater

Gastropods, the only mollusks with terrestrial representatives, occur in nearly every habitat type. On land they’re found in wet and dry areas, including deserts; from low to high elevations; from tropical to polar latitudes (as high as there is humic material and leaf litter). Inland aquatic habitats range from puddles to lakes and rivers, fresh to salt water, and include sulfurous hot springs. In the ocean they occupy all habitat types, from deep ocean basins and hydrothermal vent communities to high intertidal splash zones and from warm tropical waters to cold polar seas.

(Ruppert et al., 2004; University of California Museum of Paleontology - The Gastropoda; Griffiths, 2010; J. Nekola, personal communication, January 17, 2011)

Gastropoda (gastropoda) is prey of:
Leptasterias
Pisaster
Rana pipiens
Anura
Haplochromis johnstoni
Barbus eurystomus
Haplocrhomis mola
Asteroidea
Actinopterygii
Homo sapiens
Alburnus alburnus
Gomphus
Aythya affinis
Hirudinea
Ambystoma maculatum
Ambystoma laterale
Ambystoma tremblayi
Ambystoma tigrinum
Notophthalmus viridescens
Concholepas concholepas
Sicyases sanguineus
Heliaster helianthus
Larus dominicanus
Clarias gariepinus
Haplochromis darlingi
bleak
Geococcyx californianus
Chondrichthyes
Scombridae
Carangidae
decomposers/microfauna
phytoplankton
organic stuff
benthic autotrophs
Blenniidae
Cheloniidae
Octopus
Cephalopoda
Decapoda
Stomatopoda
Anomura
Gastropoda
Priapula
Polychaeta
Ophiuroidea
Cancer
Brachyura
Echinoidea
Margarops fuscus
Margarops fuscatus
Anolis gingivinus
Anolis pogus

Based on studies in:
USA: Washington (Littoral, Rocky shore)
Canada: Manitoba (Forest)
Malawi, Lake Nyasa (Lake or pond)
USA: Alaska, Aleutian Islands (Coastal)
Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands shelf (Reef)
USA: Iowa, Mississippi River (River)
England, River Thames (River)
USA, Northeastern US contintental shelf (Coastal)
USA: Michigan (Lake or pond)
Chile, central Chile (Littoral, Rocky shore)
Africa, Lake McIlwaine (Lake or pond)

This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.

Gastropoda (gastropoda) preys on:
algae

Cyrtosperma
Pandanus
Artocarpus altilis
Corylus
Pyrola
Cornus
Aralia
Aufwuchs
macroalgae
periphyton
detritus
phytoplankton
epiphytic algae
Cephalopoda
Decapoda
Stomatopoda
Anomura
Isopoda
Amphipoda
Pycnogonidae
Tanaidae
Gastropoda
Scaphopoda
Neoloricata
Priapula
Polychaeta
Ophiuroidea
Hemichordata
Holothuroidea
Echiuroidea
Sipunculidae
Bivalvia
Ectoprocta
Cirripedia
Ascidia
Porifera
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Ostreoida
leaves

Based on studies in:
USA: Washington (Littoral, Rocky shore)
Polynesia (Reef)
Malawi, Lake Nyasa (Lake or pond)
England, River Thames (River)
Chile, central Chile (Littoral, Rocky shore)
Africa, Lake McIlwaine (Lake or pond)
Canada: Manitoba (Forest)
USA: Alaska, Aleutian Islands (Coastal)
USA: Michigan (Lake or pond)
USA: Iowa, Mississippi River (River)
USA, Northeastern US contintental shelf (Coastal)
Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands shelf (Reef)

This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.

Animal / rests in
metacercarial cyst of Brachylaimus fuscatus rests inside Gastropoda

Animal / parasite / endoparasite
tetracotyle larva of Cotylurus cornutus endoparasitises Gastropoda

Animal / parasite / endoparasite
larva of Ravinia pernix endoparasitises Gastropoda

Animal / parasite
Riccardoella limacum parasitises Gastropoda

Shell protects from heat: desert snail
 

The shell of some desert snails helps them survive extreme heat using light reflectance and architecturally-derived, insulating layers of air.

       
  "It will be a surprise to many biologists that snails are found in large numbers on the dry, barren surfaces of certain hot deserts. The present study is concerned with one such snail, Sphincterochila boissieri, which occurs in the deserts of the Near East. Live specimens of this snail, withdrawn in the shell and dormant, can be found on the desert surface in mid-summer, fully exposed to sun and heat. The surface temperature of these deserts may reach 70 °C and more than a year may pass between rains…

"The maximum air temperature, reached at noon, was 42.6 °C, and the maximum soil surface temperature in the sun, reached at 13.00, was 65.3 °C. Under the snail, in the space between the soil surface and the smooth shell, the maximum temperature was 60.1 °C, or 5.2 °C below the adjacent soil surface in the open sun. The lower temperature under the shell is expected, for the shell provides shade for that particular spot of the soil surface on which it sits. Inside the shell in the largest whorl, located in contact with the ground, the maximum temperature was 56.2 °C. In the second and third whorls the temperature was lower, reaching a maximum of 50.3 °C.

"It is important that the animal, when withdrawn, does not fill the shell and leaves most of the largest whorl filled with air…The snail, withdrawn to the upper parts of the shell, is significantly cooler…

"Why does the snail not heat up to the same temperature as the soil surface? The answer lies in its high reflectivity in combination with the slow conduction of heat from the substrate. Within the visible part of the solar spectrum (which contains about one-half of the total incident solar radiant energy) the reflectance of these snails is about 90%. In the near infrared, up to 1350 nm, the reflectance is similar to that of magnesium oxide and is estimated to be 95%. In the total range of the solar spectrum, therefore, we can say that the snails reflect well over 90% of the incident radiant energy.

"…heat flow, however, is impeded by two important circumstances. Firstly, the snail shell is in direct contact with the rough soil surface only in a few spots, and a layer of still air separates much of its bottom surface from the ground, forming an insulatng [sic] air cushion. Next, and perhaps more important, the snail is withdrawn into the upper parts of the shell and the largest whorl is filled with air; this constitutes a further impediment to heat flow into the snail." (Schmidt-Nielsen et al. 1971:385, 388-9)

  Learn more about this functional adaptation.

Shell is tough armor: golden scale snail
 

The shell of hydrothermal vent snails serves as tough armor thanks to a three-layered structure incorporating iron sulphide granules.

         
  "During the second ever expedition to hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, biologists spotted a snail with a strange-looking foot. Many snails can close the opening to their shell with a flat, round bit of shell called an operculum. But this snail instead protects itself with scales, a feature seen before only in long extinct species, although the vent snail itself evolved recently. Even more unusually, the scales are reinforced with the iron sulphide minerals fool's gold and greigite, giving them a golden colour. No other multicellular animal is known to use these materials." (Schrope 2005:38)

"…[T]he snail has evolved a tri-layered shell structure consisting of an  outer layer embedded with iron sulfide granules, a  thick organic middle layer, and a calcified inner layer.  This creates a configuration in which the inner compliant layer is  sandwiched  between two rigid layers.
 
  "Ortiz and her colleagues, including MIT Dean of Engineering  Subra Suresh, used nanoscale experiments and computer modeling to  determine  the shell's structure and mechanical properties. They found  that the unique three-layer structure dissipates mechanical energy,  which  helps the snails fend off attacks from crabs that squeeze  the shell with their claws in an attempt to fracture it. The shell of  the  scaly-foot snail possesses a number of additional energy  dissipation mechanisms compared to typical mollusk shells that are  primarily  composed of calcium carbonate." (Trafton 2010)

  Learn more about this functional adaptation.

Foot aids underwater movement: water snail
 

The foot of water snails helps them move upside down beneath the water's surface by creating small ripples in the mucus-water interface.

   
  "A UC San Diego engineer has revealed a new mode of propulsion based on  how water snails create ripples of slime to crawl upside down beneath  the surface.

"Eric Lauga, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace  engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, recently published a  paper…that explains how and why water snails can drag themselves across a  fluid surface that they can't even grip.

"Based on Lauga's research, the secret is in the slime. The main finding  of Lauga's research is that soft surfaces, such as the free surface of a  pond or a lake, can be distorted by applying forces; these distortions  can be exploited (by an animal, or in the lab) to generate propulsive  forces and move. Some freshwater and marine snails crawl by 'hanging'  from the water surface while secreting a trail of mucus. The snail's  foot wrinkles into little rippling waves, which produces corresponding  waves in the mucus layer that it secretes between the foot and the air. Parts of the mucus film get squeezed while other parts are stretched,  creating a pressure that pushes the foot forward." (Jacobs School of Engineering News 2008)

Watch Video Here
  Learn more about this functional adaptation.

Membrane reduces evaporation: land snail
 

A secreted mucus membrane across the opening of the shells of some land snails protects them from drying out by reducing evaporation.

   
  "And certain land snails, particularly desert dwellers, seal themselves inside their shells to avoid desiccation in dry conditions, secreting a special membrane across their shells' opening that reduces evaporation; they can remain encased for years if need be until rain returns." (Shuker 2001:105)
  Learn more about this functional adaptation.

Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Gastropoda

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
                                                             

Specimen Records:	35,630
Specimens with Sequences:	29,176
Specimens with Barcodes:	26,540
Public Records:	20,538
Species:	5,836
Species With Barcodes:	4,824

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