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Orthogastropoda

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iOrthogastropoda
Geography Cone (Conus geographus)
Geography Cone (Conus geographus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda
Taxonomy
  • See Text

In their work, which has become a standard reference in the field, Ponder and Lindberg (1997) showed that the Orthogastropoda is one of two subclasses of the Gastropoda the class of molluscs, the other subclass being the Eogastropoda.

This subclass, which one could call the true snails, is defined most briefly as all those gastropods which are not members of Patellogastropoda, the true limpets, or its ancestors. They form a clade, supported by unambiguous synapomorphies. These synapomorphies (a series of characteristics that appear in its members but not in the other forms it diverged from) are the identifying characteristics of the clade.

Some of the characterisitics are:

  • eyes with a vitreous body on eyestalks.
  • paired jaws, with their position free from the buccal mass
  • a single kidney on the right side of pericardium
  • a flexoglossate radula (with a flexible radular membrane). The radula is the snail's tongue, used as a rasping tool.
  • unpaired osphradium (olfactory organ).
  • lateral ciliated zones of osphradium
  • a single left hypobranchial gland (on organ at gill, which releases secretions, such as the reddish dye Tyrian purple).
  • an unpaired ctenidium (a comblike respiratory structure in certain mollusks)

[edit] Taxonomy

This taxonomy is still under revision.

[edit] References

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