Gather some Garrulous Gastropods Quiz

Answer:

The Gastropods

Garden snail
The garden snail is a common land snail found in gardens, parks and other places where people live. Its shell is usually about 3-4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 inches) across. Also it is a hermaphrodite, meaning every adult has both male and female reproductive organs, so it can literally reproduce itself.

Slug
Slugs are gastropods that have lost, or greatly reduced, the shell that their snail relatives carry around. Many of those that have not lost their shells have internalized them...which is so weird. They can be found on land and in water, and some land slugs can squeeze through surprisingly tiny spaces because their bodies are mostly soft muscle and mucus.

Limpet
Limpets are small marine gastropods with cone-shaped shells that cling tightly to rocks. They use a remarkable tongue-like organ called a radula to scrape algae from the rock, and many limpets actually return to the exact same spot after feeding, eventually creating a "home scar" in the rock.

Periwinkle
The common periwinkle is a small sea snail that lives along rocky shores, where its shell can grow to about 3 cm (1.18 inches) long. It eats algae with a radula covered in thousands of tiny teeth. Enough scraping by enough periwinkles can slowly wear away rock in a process called bioerosion.

Abalone
Abalone have flattened, ear-shaped shells and can grow surprisingly large; some species reach more than 20 cm (7.87 inches)! Their shells have a row of holes that allow water to pass over their gills, and the inside is so smooth and shiny that abalone shells are often used for jewellery. They are also, in this writer's opinion, delicious.

Whelk
Whelks are large marine gastropods with thick, spiral shells, and can reach about 10 cm (3.94 inches) long. Many whelks are predators, hunting other animals on the ocean floor rather than simply eating plants.

Conch
Conchs are large sea snails, famous for their beautiful spiral shells. Some can grow large enough to be used as trumpets. Blow into the opening of a big conch shell and you can produce a surprisingly loud and beautiful note - just ask Piggy from 'Lord of the Flies'.

Cowrie
Cowries are usually small, shiny sea snails with smooth, colourful shells. Some species were once used as money, especially the money cowrie, which was traded in parts of Africa and Asia. They are now used to make necklaces for frat boys, surfer dudes, and anyone else who wants to identify with bro culture.

Nudibranch
Nudibranchs are colourful sea slugs that can be found in oceans around the world, especially in warm, shallow water. Some are only a few millimetres (hundredths of inches) long, while others reach about 30 cm (11.81 inches), and some can steal poisonous chemicals from the animals they eat and use them for defence. Trust me, don't pick one up.

Sea hare
Sea hares are large sea slugs that can reach around 20 cm (7.87 inches), although some species get much bigger. They have soft bodies and small internal shells, and their two long structures on the head look a little like rabbit ears... guess where their name comes from.

Sea butterfly
Sea butterflies are tiny swimming gastropods, usually less than 1 cm (0.39 inches) long. Instead of crawling along the bottom like an ordinary snail, they flap their modified foot like wings and fly through the water...gastropters? These things are wild. I have seen photos of them and they look like the Detroit Red Wings logo.

Turban shell
Turban shells are marine gastropods with round, heavy shells that look a little like - whaddya think? - turbans. Some grow to more than 10 cm (3.94 inches), and they have a hard little door called an operculum that they can pull over the shell opening when they retreat inside. I love eating them, but they can be quite bitter.

Murex
Murex are predatory sea snails with spectacular shells covered in bumps, spikes, and frills. Some murex species were once used to make Tyrian purple, one of the most expensive dyes in the ancient world - which is why these little gastropods ended up connected to kings, emperors and royal clothing...and are probably responsible for the red carpet we still see in Hollywood today.

Zebra nerite
The zebra nerite is a small freshwater gastropod with a striped shell, usually around 2-3 cm (0.8-1.2 inches) across. It is popular in aquariums because it eats algae, but there's a catch: it needs saltwater or brackish water to reproduce, so it usually cannot start a population in a normal freshwater aquarium, even though it quite happily lives there.

Volcano snail
The volcano snail lives deep in the Indian Ocean around hydrothermal vents, where superheated water shoots out of cracks in the seafloor. It lives in a place with extreme temperatures, darkness, and chemicals that would be deadly to most animals. Being that it doesn't play by the rules of almost any other tellurian (learned that one from the Daily Game), it just decided to grow iron armour. Its shell is composed of layers of iron sulphide, and even the scales on its foot contain iron, making it the only known animal that uses iron sulphides to build a hard protective covering.

The Not the Gastropods

Quahog
The quahog is a type of clam, found along the Atlantic coast of North America. It lives buried in sand or mud and can live for more than 40 years. The name comes from an Indigenous American word, and quahog shells were once used to make wampum - kind of like money to the Native Americans, but with deeper cultural and economic uses. Quahog is also the name of the fictional Rhode Island town where the Griffins live in 'Family Guy'.

Oyster
Oysters are shellfish that live in coastal waters, usually attached to rocks or other hard surfaces. They are where we get pearls, although only some oysters produce the beautiful pearls people wear as jewellery. Oysters are also unusual because some species are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they can change sex during their lives, but at any given time are one sex or the other.

Mussel
Mussels are bivalves with dark, often blue-black shells, and they usually live attached to rocks, docks, or other hard surfaces. They hold on using tough threads called byssal threads, which are surprisingly strong and can withstand waves and currents. Some mussels can even produce hundreds of these threads to anchor themselves.

Scallop
Scallops are bivalves with fan-shaped shells and, unlike most shellfish, they can actually swim. They clap their shells together to push water out and move through the ocean, sometimes making surprisingly fast escapes from predators. Their shells can also have dozens of tiny eyes along the edge. If you have never seen a scallop swim, you must go find a video. They are hilarious.

Chiton
Chitons are strange marine molluscs with eight overlapping plates covering their backs, giving them an armoured appearance. They cling tightly to rocks and use a radula to scrape algae from the surface. Some species have teeth containing magnetite, an iron mineral that makes their teeth some of the hardest structures found in any animal....but see the volcano snail, above.