Sea snail

Sea snails are slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone.

They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the absence of a visible shell.

Because the shells of sea snails are strong and durable in many cases, as a group they are well represented in the fossil record.

A number of species of sea snails are harvested in aquaculture and used by humans for food, including abalone, conch, limpets, whelks (such as the North American Busycon species and the North Atlantic Buccinum undatum) and periwinkles including Littorina littorea.

The shells of a few species of large sea snails within the Vetigastropoda have a thick layer of nacre and have been used as a source of mother of pearl.

A species of sea snail in its natural habitat: two individuals of the wentletrap Epidendrium billeeanum with a mass of egg capsules in situ on their food source, a red cup coral .
A sea snail Euthria cornea laying eggs
The shell of Syrinx aruanus can be up to 91 cm long.
A 50-second video of snails (most likely Natica chemnitzi and Cerithium stercusmuscaram ) feeding on the sea floor in the Gulf of California , Puerto Peñasco , Mexico .
A hermit crab occupying a shell of Acanthina punctulata has been disturbed, and has retracted into the shell, using its claws to bar the entrance in the same way the snail used its operculum .