Thatcheria mirabilis (Japanese wonder snail) (24489902955)

Description:

Summary[edit] Description: Thatcheria mirabilis Angas, 1877 - Japanese wonder snail (oblique abapertural view) (public display, Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA) The gastropods (snails & slugs) are a group of molluscs that occupy marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Most gastropods have a calcareous external shell (the snails). Some lack a shell completely, or have reduced internal shells (the slugs & sea slugs & pteropods). Most members of the Gastropoda are marine. Most marine snails are herbivores (algae grazers) or predators/carnivores. The Japanese wonder snail, Thatcheria mirabilis, is probably the most distinctively-shaped gastropod shell on Earth. Its shell has extremely keeled whorls, resulting in the development of a prominent winding shelf. It is known from the far-western Pacific Basin, for example Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neogastropoda, Conoidea, Raphitomidae More info. at: www.jaxshells.org/japanese.htm. Date: 3 January 2016, 17:58. Source: Thatcheria mirabilis (Japanese wonder snail). Author: James St. John.