This list of marine gastropods of South Africa attempts to list all of the sea snails and sea slugs of South Africa, in other words the marine gastropod molluscs of that area. This list is a sub-list of the List of marine molluscs of South Africa.
Contents
- Gastropoda
- Patellogastropoda
- Vetigastropoda
- Neritimorpha
- Caenogastropoda
- Heterobranchia — Heterobranch gastropods
- References
- External links
The gastropods ( /ˈɡæstrəpɒdz/ ), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ( /ɡæsˈtrɒpədə/ ).
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from the land. There are many thousands of species of sea snails and slugs, as well as freshwater snails, freshwater limpets, and land snails and slugs.
The class Gastropoda contains a vast total of named species, second only to the insects in overall number. The fossil history of this class goes back to the Late Cambrian. , 721 families of gastropods are known, of which 245 are extinct and appear only in the fossil record, while 476 are currently extant with or without a fossil record. ( Full article... )
