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land snails have a strong muscular foot by conor

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achatina_fulica

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hi katya by

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Land snails cover the entrance of their shell with a dry mucus secretion called epiphragm, but a few do it with a structure, that in the aquatic snails, has the name of the operculum.

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The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin.

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The Giant African Land Snail is one of the largest terrestrial gastropods. They have a light to dark brown shells with vertical stripes of a darker shade of brown on them

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cai

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snail fact

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Some predators of terrestrial snails are beetles, rats, mice, turtles, salamanders and some birds.

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demi

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Most snails live from 2 to 5 years, but in captivity, some have exceeded 10 or 15 years of age.

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There is 65,000 to 80,000 species of snail.
Land snails like to enjoy fungi plants and other vegetation.
There are snails that are carnivores and snails that eat dead plants.
The Powelliphanta snail from New Zealand that is a large air breathing snail that eat other inverabrates.

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demi

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cai

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Strong acids have a low pH. pH 1 to 3.
Weak acids have a higher pH 4 to 6.

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Turbo Official Trailer #2 (2013) - Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader Movie HD

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Snails Time-lapse - The Great British Year: Episode 3 Preview - BBC One

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Snail Facts and Information. Habitat, Feeding, Anatomy, Reproduction, Lifecycle, Predators.
Facts about African Giant Snail, Garden Snail, Roman Snail or Escargot. Get Started ›

Introduction

Snails' ancestors are one of the earliest known types of animals in the world. There is fossil evidence of primitive gastropods dating back to the late Cambrian period; this means that they lived nearly 500 million years ago.

There are many types of snails, but they fundamentally differ because they are aquatic or terrestrial. The former are adapted to live in the sea or bodies of fresh water, but the latter live exclusively on land, although in humid areas.

All land snails are gastropod mollusks, meaning that they belong to the same group of octopuses, which are part of the phylum Mollusca. At the same time, they are members of the class Gastropoda, which includes all snails and slugs. Being a mollusk means lacking an internal skeleton and bones, but snails are not unprotected.

Gastropods can adapt to a variety of living conditions, and they don't require large amounts of food. They have been able to continually evolve to survive the conditions around them which many researchers find to be very fascinating.

Gastropods belong to the phylum Mollusca (or Mollusks) a classification of invertebrate animals with a soft unsegmented body, sometimes covered with an exoskeleton or shell. This phylum, Mollusca, includes animals like squids, octopuses, clams and cuttlefishes among others. Snails and slugs are both Gastropods. Therefore they are closely related, regardless the fact that slugs lack a protective shell.

Being a Gastropod

The most striking physical feature of snails is their spiral shell that they load on the back. It is a hard structure composed of calcium carbonate, which protects their soft body and internal organs. Among these organs is their lung because land snails breathe air from the atmosphere that then passes into a lung to get the oxygen; this is one of the main differences with aquatic snails, that only a few species of water snails breathe air.

You will find snails everywhere around the world. In fact, Gastropods range second, only behind insects when it comes to the number of named species. As an obvious result of this, they are found in many locations, living in a very diverse type of habitats and even having particular feeding habits.

The Earth offers a vast diversity of habitats for snails. Surely you have found tiny snails under a stone, but also climbing some stem or leaf of a plant. They can survive in natural environments or places frequented by humans, such as public parks and gardens.

Their quantity and diversity are vast. There are anything between 85,000 and 150,000 mollusks of which 80-85 percent are gastropods. Therefore, the world is home to more than 60,000 species of them.

Land snails range greatly in size. While some of them are only a few inches long and often weigh only a few ounces, there are land snails that reach almost 12 inches, like the Giant African Land Snail, a species endemic to Africa.

Although snails do not have legs, they can move thanks to a "muscular foot" that, based on wave movements, allows the snail to go from one place to another. This action is smoother and safer for snails with the help of the "mucus" that the snail secretes to slide on all types of surfaces and maintain its moisture reduces friction and avoids harms to their body.

Certainly, land snails are incredibly slow. Their forward speed depends on the species, but usually, it is between 0.5 and 0.7 inches per second. Its slowness is another feature that has made it famous, and some people have known how to play with it. For example, in many places in the UK, snail racing is organized! Can you imagine waiting for them to reach the finish line? It does not last as long as it may seem.

While moving, snails leave behind a trail of slime, a lubricant they produce to allow them to go on any terrain without injuring its body. Land Snails aren't able to hear at all, but they have eyes and olfactory organs. They use their sense of smell to help them find food being their most important sensory organ.

You will find that snails are most active at night. They may come out during the early morning hours as well.

The biological features of snails are fascinating. For example, most are hermaphrodites, which means that a single snail has male and female reproductive organs at the same time. However, they usually mate in the "traditional" way: with a partner. A few weeks after mating and laying eggs, the hatchlings emerge from their egg, small and defenseless against many predators that sneak around, such as beetles, birds, turtles and even other snails. There are exceptions. Some species have sex differentiation, so every individual is either male or female.

The life expectancy of snails in the wild is about 3 to 7 years, but in captivity, they can live up to 10-15 years or even more.

Snail shell is made of calcium carbonate and keeps growing as long as the snail grows. They keep adding more calcium carbonate to the edge until the snail reaches adult size.

Humans have eaten land snails for centuries, although not everywhere. They are common in gastronomy, in some parts of Europe like France and Spain where they are considered a delicacy. However, their consumption must be careful, since some snails harbor parasites that, once in the human body or that of other animals, can cause severe diseases. Therefore, handling land snails, especially those found in the wild, should observe the proper hygiene precautions to avoid dangerous diseases like meningitis among others.

When snails multiply and damage crops or in some way affect the species of a region or the human being, they are considered pests. Certain species grow up to the size of an adult hand, and of course, their feeding needs also increase. That is why it is important to pay attention to the recommendations about the handling and care of snails.

In conclusion, snails are much more than a shell. On this site, we talk about land snails. Therefore we implicitly exclude freshwater and sea snails and refer only to the terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells.

Definitions:

Cambrian period A period of the Paleozoic era, from 540 to 585 million years ago.

Invertebrate. Animals that do not have a vertebral column.

Exoskeleton. External skeleton that protects the body of an animal.

Hermaphrodites A living organism that has reproductive organs of both sexes.

Top Facts about Snails

The largest land snail recorded was 12 inches long and weighed near 2 pounds.

Garden snails (helix apersa) a top speed of 50 yards per hour, this is about 1.3 cm.

Snail FAQs

Snails tend to feed on a variety of items found in their natural habitat. What they will actually consume depends on where they live and the species of snail that they are.

Snails for Kids

Snails are so diverse that there are land snails, sea snails and freshwater snails.

There are thousands of species of snails.

Snail Pictures

Snail Habitat, Feeding, Anatomy, Reproduction, lifecycle and Predators.

African Giant Snail

Garden Snail

Roman Snail - Escargot

Snail Multimedia

Snails in Culture

Snails in Cuisine

Snail Pests

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Snail Facts and Information. Habitat, Feeding, Anatomy, Reproduction, Lifecycle, Predators. Facts about African Giant Snail, Garden Snail, Roman Snail or Escargot. Get Started › Snails' ancestors are one of the earliest known types of animals in the world. There is fossil evidence of primitive gastropods dating back to the late Cambrian period; this means that they lived nearly 500 million years ago.

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Scientists at The University of Nottingham hoping to study the genetics of an ultra-rare garden snail are asking the public for its help in finding the lonely mollusc a mate.

The snail's unique qualities make it a one in a million find -- but also impossible for it to mate with its more common counterparts.

At first glance, the brown garden snail may look like any other but closer inspection of the snail's shell reveals exactly why this creature is so special.

While the shells of this common species spiral in a right-handed, clockwise direction -- known as dextral -- the Nottingham snail is a sinistral, with a left-handed anti-clockwise spiralling shell. In essence, the 'lefty' snail is a mirror image of its other shell-dwelling friends.

Dr Angus Davison, associate professor and reader in evolutionary genetics in the University's School of Life Sciences, said: "This really is an exciting find -- I have been studying snails for more than 20 years and I have never seen one of these before. We are very keen to study the snail's genetics to find out whether this is a result of a developmental glitch or whether this is a genuine inherited genetic trait."

However, for Nottingham's 'lefty' snail -- dubbed Jeremy -- being special comes with a unique set of problems. In addition to its mirror-image shell, the snail's genitals are also on the opposite side to the more common dextral snails -- making it very difficult for the two types of snails to mate.

Dr Davison added: "Snails are hermaphrodites meaning that if they want to they can reproduce on their own without the need for another mate. However, they don't really like doing this and from our perspective, the genetic data from offspring of two lefty snails would be far richer and more valuable to us."

Jeremy the snail was originally found around a compost heap in Rayne's Park, South West London by a retired scientist from the Natural History Museum, who spotted its unique traits. Having heard about Dr Davison's interest in snail genetics, he contacted the Nottingham scientist before sending it on -- by snail mail.

Earlier this year, in research published in the journal Current Biology, Dr Davison and colleagues at universities in Edinburgh, Germany and the US, revealed they had discovered a gene that determines whether a snail's shell twists in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction.

The same gene also affects body asymmetry in other animals -- including humans -- and research using these snails could offer the chance to develop our understanding of how organs are placed in the body and why this process can sometimes go wrong when some or all of the major internal organs are reversed from their normal placement.

Now the hunt is on for a second sinistral brown garden snail to mate with Jeremy and Dr Davison is appealing to the public to get involved by searching hedgerows, borders and plant pots for this rare variety of the common snail.

"This is something which everyone can get involved with and which you can easily do on your own doorstep. It is an example of citizen science at its best. There is a chance, because it is such a rare thing, that anyone who can find and identify another of these sinistral snails may even find themselves named as a contributor on a research paper we publish in the future as a result of this."

Anyone who thinks they have found a sinistral snail can email a picture of the snail to angus.davison@nottingham.ac.uk or tweet it using the hashtag #snaillove.

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life sciences; biology; biochemistry research; endangered plants; genetics; marine biology; evolutionary biology; microbiology

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Lonely 'lefty' snail seeks mate for love, and genetic study

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Scientists are hoping to study the genetics of an ultra-rare garden snail are asking the public for its help in finding the lonely mollusc a mate. The snail's unique qualities make it a one in a million find - but also impossible for it to mate with its more common counterparts.

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What do you notice about these snail shells?

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What do you notice about these snail shells?

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Lonely 'lefty' snail seeks mate for love, and genetic study

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Lonely 'lefty' snail seeks mate for love, and genetic study

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Date:

October 21, 2016

Source:

University of Nottingham

Summary:

Scientists are hoping to study the genetics of an ultra-rare garden snail are asking the public for its help in finding the lonely mollusc a mate. The snail’s unique qualities make it a one in a million find - but also impossible for it to mate with its more common counterparts. At first glance, the brown garden snail may look like any other but closer inspection of the snail’s shell reveals exactly why this creature is so special. While the shells of this common species spiral in a right-handed, clockwise direction – known as dextral – this snail is a sinistral, with a left-handed anti-clockwise spiralling shell. In essence, the ‘lefty’ snail is a mirror image of its other shell-dwelling friends.

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Snails The speed of snails is around 0.5-0.8 inches per second. If they moved without stopping, it would take more than a week to complete 1 kilometer.

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Snails Calcium carbonate is the main component of the snail shells.

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There are giant snails.
The biggest land snail recorded was 12 inches long and weighed near 2 pounds. It was a Giant African Snail. Other species are tiny being only a few centimeters long when they are adults and just a couple of ounces in weight.

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Sea snail shells dissolve in increasingly acidified oceans

Date:

October 15, 2018

Source:

University of Plymouth

Summary:

Shelled marine creatures living in increasingly acidified oceans face a fight for survival as the impacts of climate change spread, a new study suggests.
Writing in Frontiers in Marine Science, scientists say the effects are down to the increased stresses placed on the species in waters where the pH is lower, which reduce their ability to control the calcification process.

And they have warned other shellfish are likely to be impacted in the same way, threatening their survival and that of other species that rely on them for food.

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Snails The life expectancy of snails depends on their habitat and the species. Some of them only live for about five years. However, others in captivity can live up to 25 years old.

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Snails The courtship, process by which they attract each other before mating, lasts between 2 and 12 hours.

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Demi and alleah

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Snails When they feel threatened, they usually retreat into their shell to protect themselves.

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Snails In France, edible snails are “escargot,” a word that also applies to a dish made with them, which is an appetizer.

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Snails try to get a diet that is full of calcium to keep their shells thick and healthy. Land snails have tiny teeth! They have a structure called the radula that has of rows of them. The “cone snails,” a family of sea snails is venomous, and some of them are fatal to humans!

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Snails  In some places, people eat snail eggs, and call them “white caviar.”

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Snails are gastropod mollusks; members of the phylum Mollusca and the class Gastropoda.

– When they feel threatened, they usually retreat into their shell to protect themselves.

– The largest land snail is the Achatina achatina, the Giant African Snail.

– Snails have no backbone.

– Some land snails feed on other terrestrial snails.”

– North America has about 500 native species of land snails.

– The snails that just hatch the egg can eat their shells and even other eggs of their brothers.

– Most snails live from 2 to 5 years, but in captivity, some have exceeded 10 or 15 years of age.

– In France, edible snails are “escargot,” a word that also applies to a dish made with them, which is an appetizer.

– The courtship, process by which they attract each other before mating, lasts between 2 and 12 hours.

– In some places, people eat snail eggs, and call them “white caviar.”

– Usually, land snails hatch from eggs.

– The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin.

– Most snail species are hermaphrodites, so they have both male and female reproductive organs.

– The speed of snails is around 0.5-0.8 inches per second. If they moved without stopping, it would take more than a week to complete 1 kilometer.

– Land snails cover the entrance of their shell with a dry mucus secretion called epiphragm, but a few do it with a structure, that in the aquatic snails, has the name of the operculum.

– Snails do not change shells when they grow up.” Instead, the shell grows along with them.

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The gastropod shell is an animal shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail.
A snail is releated to shellfish.
They like to dine together.
Snail slime is a kind of mucus

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By Demi & alleah

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Hi by summey

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Giant African snails can reach 3 to 8 inches in length

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– The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin.
- Most snail species are hermaphrodites, so they have both male and female reproductive organs.
- Some predators of terrestrial snails are beetles, rats, mice, turtles, salamanders and some birds.
- A single garden snail (Helix aspersa) can have up to 430 hatchlings after a year. Just a single snail.

– The size of the shell of a snail reflects its age.

– Many snails are in danger of extinction. Among these are the species Aaadonta constricta and Aaadonta fuscozonata, and others of the genus Aaadonta and Achatinella are in critical danger of extinction.

By Josh Tobin

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Snails are gastropod mollusks; members of the phylum Mollusca and the class Gastropoda. – When they feel threatened, they usually retreat into their shell to protect themselves. – The largest land snail is the Achatina achatina, the Giant African Snail.

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The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin.

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The snails that just hatch the egg can eat their shells and even other eggs of their brothers.

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Snails host several types of parasites that, while may not kill them, they are capable of affecting or killing their predators or animals that eat the snails. Even humans who eat poorly cooked snails can become seriously ill.

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Facts About Giant African Land Snails - GALS Facts - Giant African Land Snails

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Facts and information about Giant African Lands Snails - Find out how to keep and care for GALS here.

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Most species of land snail are annual, others are known to live 2 or 3 years

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Usually land snails hatch from eggs

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By Alleah

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Demi

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The body is soft and slimy, brownish-grey, and the animal retracts itself entirely into the shell when inactive or threatened. When injured or badly irritated the animal produces a defensive froth of mucus that might repel some enemies or overwhelm aggressive small ants or the like. It has no operculum; during dry or cold weather it seals the aperture of the shell with a thin membrane of dried mucus; the term for such a membrane is epiphragm. The epiphragm helps the snail retain moisture and protects it from small predators such as some ants.

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By Alleah

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Snails are gastropods
Snails are part of the helicidae family
Some land snails feed on other terrestrial snails

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By Alleah

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Demi

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Acid rain is one of the consequences of air pollution. It occurs when emissions from factories, cars or heating boilers contact with the water in the atmosphere. These emissions contain nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide, which when mixed with water become sulfurous acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid. This process also occurs naturally through volcanic eruptions.

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Acidic water is the main reason why snails are absent from some 4000 lakes in a low-calcium area in southern Norway ('Acid south'). This area is heavily influenced by acidic precipitation. Snails were not detected in lakes with pH below 5. ... The calcium level modified the effect of low pH. by cai williams