Biogeography of gastropods

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The biogeography of gastropods is the study of the distribution of the biodiversity of gastropods over space and time.

Biogeography The study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area. Phytogeography is the branch of biogeography that studies the distribution of plants. Zoogeography is the branch that studies distribution of animals.

Biodiversity Variety and variabiity of life forms

Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level. Terrestrial biodiversity is usually greater near the equator, which is the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 percent of earth's surface, and contain about 90 percent of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future.

Contents

Prehistoric

The study of the biogeography of gastropods is within the scope of paleobiogeography.

Marine

The world's highest biodiversity of Volutomitridae is in waters of New Caledonia. [1]

Volutomitridae is a family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks, in the superfamily Turbinelloidea.

New Caledonia overseas territory of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, located to the south of Vanuatu, about 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia and 20,000 km (12,000 mi) from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. Locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou.

Non-marine

The biogeography of non-marine gastropods (freshwater snails, land snails and slugs) is often studied along with that of freshwater bivalves.

Freshwater snail

Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in freshwater. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs to major rivers. The great majority of freshwater gastropods have a shell, with very few exceptions. Some groups of snails that live in freshwater respire using gills, whereas other groups need to reach the surface to breathe air. In addition, some are amphibious and have both gills and a lung. Most feed on algae, but many are detritivors and some are filter feeders.

Land snail

A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to sea snails and freshwater snails. Land snail is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells. However, it is not always easy to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less amphibious between land and fresh water, and others are relatively amphibious between land and salt water.

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Microvoluta cythara is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutomitridae.

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<i>Clithon spinosum</i> species of mollusc

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References

  1. ↑ Bouchet, P. & Kantor, Y. I. (2003) "New Caledonia: the major centre of biodiversity for volutomitrid molluscs (Mollusca: Neogastropoda: Volutomitridae)". Systematics and Biodiversity 1(4): 467–502. doi : 10.1017/S1477200003001282

Further reading

Marine

Opisthobranchia infraclass of molluscs

Opisthobranchs are a large and diverse group of specialized complex gastropods that used to be united in the subclass Opisthobranchia, but are no longer considered to represent a monophyletic grouping because it contains land snails and slugs, the Pulmonata. Euopisthobranchia is a revised collection of opisthobranchs that is monophyletic, but this group leaves out some "traditional" opisthobranchs including the Sacoglossa and the Acochlidiacea. The subclass Heterobranchia now contains the species which used to be assigned to Opisthobranchia plus the Pulmonata.

Digital object identifier Character string used as a permanent identifier for a digital object, in a format controlled by the International DOI Foundation

In computing, a Digital Object Identifier or DOI is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). An implementation of the Handle System, DOIs are in wide use mainly to identify academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports and data sets, and official publications though they also have been used to identify other types of information resources, such as commercial videos.

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