Snails and Slugs: Phylum Mollusca, Class Gastropoda

The Class Gastropoda (in Phylum Mollusca) includes the groups pertaining to snails and slugs. The majority of gastropods have a single, usually spirally, coiled shell into which the body can be withdrawn. The shell of these creatures is often what is recovered in a fossil dig. Gastropods are by far the largest class of molluscs, comprising over 80% of all molluscs.

The presence of gastropods, at the Pollack site, provides evidence to validate the researchers beliefs that, years ago, the environment was of shallow-water, near-shore locality.

Below are a few notable taxa recovered from the Pollack Farm site.

  • Gastrapoda:
  • Turritella cumberlandia
  • Diastoma insulaemaris
  • Epitonium charlestonensis
  • Urosalpinx cumberlandianus
  • Tritonopsis ecclesiastica
  • Nassarius sopora
  • Oliva simonsoni
  • Inodrillia whitfieldi

Click the image or the link below to view the gastropod collection!

Reference(s)

Photographs from DGS Special Publication No. 21, 1998, R.N. Benson, ed.
Top left image: http:/commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Orange_slug.jpg

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