Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Snail is a common
name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have
coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in a general
sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails.
Otherwise snail-like creatures that lack a shell (or have only a very
small one) are called slugs.One species of land snail, the Giant African
Snail, can grow to be 15 inches (38 cm) from snout to tail, and weigh 1
kilogram (2 lb). The largest living species of sea snail is Syrinx
aruanus which has a shell that can measure up to 90 cm (35 in) in
length, and the whole animal with the shell can weigh up to 18 kg (40
lb).Snails that respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata,
while those with gills form a paraphyletic group; in other words, snails
with gills are divided into a number of taxonomic groups that are not
very closely related.
