Gastropoda definition

The peculiarities of the Gastropoda are all due to the torsion of the shell and body.

For a discussion of the relationship of the Gastropoda to the remaining classes of the phylum, see MoLLUSCA.

The Gastropoda are mainly characterized by a loss of symmetry, produced by torsion of the visceral sac. This torsion may be resolved into two successive movements.

The essential feature of the asymmetry of Gastropoda is the atrophy or disappearance of the primitively left half of the circumanal complex (the right half in sinistral forms), including the gill, the auricle, the osphradium, the hypobranchial gland and the kidney.