Knowra Land snail Land snail A gastropod mollusk that lives primarily on land and typically breathes air through a lung-like mantle cavity. Most species carry a coiled shell, though some have reduced or absent shells.
Pulmonata : A major group of gastropods that includes most air-breathing snails and slugs. Most familiar land snails belong to this air-breathing gastropod group.
Gastropoda : A large class of mollusks that includes snails, slugs, limpets, and sea hares. Land snails are terrestrial members of this diverse mollusk class.
Giant African land snail : A large tropical land snail, Lissachatina fulica, native to East Africa and invasive in many regions. Its spread illustrates how land snails can become damaging agricultural pests.
Roman snail : A large European land snail, Helix pomatia, with a pale, rounded shell. This species is a prominent edible land snail and a traditional food in parts of Europe.
Calcium cycling : The movement of calcium through organisms, soils, water, and geological materials. Shell growth and decomposition make land snails participants in terrestrial calcium cycling.
Mantle (mollusk) : A tissue layer in mollusks that covers the visceral mass and often secretes the shell. Its vascularized cavity functions as a lung in many land snails.
Mollusca : A phylum of invertebrate animals that includes gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods. The body plan of land snails is built from the molluscan pattern.
Cornu aspersum : A medium-sized land snail native to the Mediterranean region and widely introduced elsewhere. This familiar species is studied in ecology and cultivated as food.
Partula : A genus of tree snails native to islands in the South Pacific. Partula species show how isolated island land snails diversify and face extinction pressures.
Island biogeography : The study of how island area, isolation, and colonization shape species diversity. Isolated islands often host distinctive land-snail faunas with high endemism.
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