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The shells are small to rather large (diameter of base without attachments 19–160 mm; height of shell 21–100 mm), depressed to conical, with narrow to wide, simple to spinose peripheral edge or flange separating spire from base. Aperture large, base broad, rather flattened, often umbilicate. Periostracum very thin or wanting.
Xenophora, commonly called carrier shells, is a genus of medium-sized to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Xenophoridae, the carrier snails or carrier shells. [2] The genus Xenophora is the type genus of the family Xenophoridae.
The sun carrier shell, like other snails in the family Xenophoridae, attaches fragments of other materials found in the ocean to its shell, such as gravel, rocks, coral particles, pebbles, or shells of other snails or clams, and this is where the name “carrier shell’ comes from.
Yet the layout of the shell is a source of protection in various ways. The unique shell makes it harder to put into a predator's mouth and swallow. Additionally, due to the type of objects glued to the shell, it serves as a method of camouflage amongst any debris. A spire is also attached to the shell of these snails and only adds to its intricacy.
The largest living species is the Giant African Snail or Ghana Tiger Snail (Achatina achatina; Family Achatinidae), which can measure up to 30 cm. [13] [14] The largest land snails of non-tropical Eurasia are endemic Caucasian snails Helix buchi and Helix goderdziana from the south-eastern Black Sea area in Georgia and Turkey; diameter of the ...
A slug on a wall in Kanagawa, Japan.. Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc.The word slug is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a small internal shell, particularly sea slugs and semi-slugs (this is in contrast to the common name snail, which applies to ...
Determining whether some gastropods should be called sea snails is not always easy. Some species that live in brackish water (such as certain neritids) can be listed as either freshwater snails or marine snails, and some species that live at or just above the high tide level (for example, species in the genus Truncatella) are sometimes considered to be sea snails and sometimes listed as land ...
Some freshwater pulmonates keep a bubble of air inside the shell, which helps them to float. [1] Many of the very small freshwater limpets which live in cold water have lost the ability to breathe air, and instead flood their mantle cavity with water. [1] Oxygen diffuses from the water to the snail's body directly. [1]