Snails (Mollusca : Gastropoda) are an ideal bio-indicators for palaeo-environments and water quality (pollution) and are much more useful in the classification of ecological diverse aquatic habitats.1-3 These aquatic snails also complete the life cycle of digenetic trematode parasites causing various dreaded trematodiasis diseases in vertebrates including men. Indeed these snails are an interme...

Studies of deep-sea biodiversity focus almost exclusively on geographic patterns of alpha-diversity. Few include the morphological or ecological properties of species that indicate their actual roles in community assembly. Here, we explore morphological disparity of shell architecture in gastropods from lower bathyal and abyssal environments of the western North Atlantic as a new dimension of d...

A new western Atlantic species belonging to the “Metula” group is described and assigned to the subgenus Agassitula, which is provisionally included in the genus Bartschia. This new species, Bartschia (Agassitula) peartae, is larger, thinner, more fusiform, and more densely pigmented than other western Atlantic members of the “Metula” group. Additional

A new genus and species of pseudosigmurethrous orthurethran pulmonate of the family Cerastidae, Darwininitium shiwalikianumgen. n. and sp. n. is described from the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal. It represents the first record of an orthurethran with a fully developed pseudosigmurethrous pallial system, having a completely closed secondary ureteric system. Biogeographically this new taxon provides a ...

Background The Hellenic Seas are influenced by on-going environmental changes and the introduction of alien species, which are expected to have an impact on their biodiversity. This study contributes to the knowledge of the Hellenic marine gastropod biodiversity, expanding data over the entire Greek territory, during the period from October 2008 to March 2017. Results This work presents 45 sp...

Patterns of richness and biogeography of Gastropoda molluscs were determined based on lists of species from five sites along the southwestern Atlantic. The analysis of the distribution patterns of these sites confirmed the existence of a broader transition zone between southern Espírito Santo State (21 degrees S) and Rio Grande do Sul State (32 degrees S). This zone is very heterogeneous, prese...

A 30-year study of temporal changes in gastropod community structure on the reefs of a Pacific Ocean atoll (Fangataufa, Tuamotu Archipelago) subjected to atmospheric nuclear tests during the 1960s offered the opportunity for an otherwise impossible field experiment that could help ecologists understand mollusc primary succession. Reef molluscs were partly or entirely wiped out by the heat of th...