Snails lay eggs in clear protective sacs on the sides of aquariums when in captivity. Above, I was lucky enough to catch one in the act, and since this is as slow as you might expect it to be, I was able to arrange the photo rig to my liking and actually see the emergence of each new egg. If you're sharp-eyed, you might have noticed that the eggs are emerging from the front of the snail, and this is typical — snail anatomy departs from the standard layout that we usually expect. The eggs themselves are roughly the same size in diameter as a straight pin shaft, seen here alongside a copepod for scale (that is, if you know how big a copepod is, but let's just say they can do some tight laps in a drop of water.) The eggs have barely begun development, and seeing details emerge takes some powerful magnification, so it's not a project to show children the miracle of forming life unless you happen to have lab equipment handy. The challenge for such photography, besides the magnification, is finding the right strength and angle of lighting to produce good results, but since they're not going anywhere, experimentation is much easier. Here the spherical shape of the eggs is expressed by the light reflections from the surfaces, much more visible because the background was kept away from any light source.Eventually they hatched (it took about a month.) Even as newborns there isn't a whole lot to see. The light angle produced some nice diffraction from the eggshells, making them appear like soap bubbles around the emerging snailings... snailettes... snailies... whatever. Producing this effect was a matter of luck, since it cannot be seen in the viewfinder, but it added a lot to the image. ![]() Snails are, in fact, born with shells, but they don’t initially look like how you might imagine them. Snails are hatched from eggs that are buried beneath the surface layer of the soil or, in the case of marine snails, placed in a protected area, like near a rock. It usually takes two to four weeks for the eggs to hatch and for the baby snails to emerge, shells and all.
The shell of a baby snail, often referred to as a protoconch or “earliest shell,” is colorless and very soft. Due to the fragile state of its shell, a newly-hatched snail needs to consume a lot of calcium, which will help its shell to harden. A baby snail usually begins its calcium-rich diet by eating the shell of the egg it hatched from, a convenient source of nutrients. As the snail continues to grow, its shell grows with it. The snail produces new shell material, like the soft material of its protoconch, that expands its shell and then hardens. The part of the shell it was born with ends up in the center of the spiral when the snail and its shell are fully grown. As a snail matures, the number of whorls or spirals which its shell has increases, as do the rings that grow inside the shell. Much like the way we think about tree rings, these rings inside a snail’s shell can be used to approximate the age of the snail. ![]() 1) Snails are so diverse that there are land snails, sea snails and freshwater snails. 2) There are thousands of species of snails. 3) The “giant tiger land snail” also known, as “giant Ghana snail” is the largest land snail in the world, their length can reach up to 12 inches. 4) Land snails secrete mucus to facilitate locomotion and reduce the friction against the ground. 5) Snails try to get a diet that is full of calcium to keep their shells thick and healthy. 6) Land snails have microscopic teeth! They are contained in a structure called the radula and that is composed of rows of them. 7) The “cone snails” a family of sea snails is venomous and some of them are fatal to humans! 8) There are around 600 different species in the family of “cone snails”. 9) There are around 30 humans killed by cone snails, that have been registered. 10) The sea snails breathe with gills, the land snails breathe with lungs while some species of freshwater snails breathe with lungs and others with gills. 11) Several species of land snails are used in the cuisine of several countries and they are considered a delicacy. The Snail is a gastropod, a soft-bodied type of mollusk that is basically a head with a flattened foot. The soft body is protected by a hard shell, which the snail retreats into when alarmed. These invertebrates (animals with no backbone) are found worldwide in the seas, in fresh water, and in moist areas on land.Locomotion: Snails move by crawling, swimming, or floating with currents. Land snails crawl on the ground, creeping along on their large, flat foot; a special gland in the foot secretes mucus (a slimy fluid) that helps the snail move. The common garden snail is the slowest moving animal; it can travel about 0.03 mph (0.05 kph).
Anatomy: Snails range in size from 0.02 inch (less than a millimeter) long (Ammonicera rota) to over 30 inches (77 cm) long (the marine Australian Trumpet (Syrinx aruanus). The largest land snail is the Giant African Snail; it is over 15.5 inches (39 cm) long and weighs about 2 pounds (900 g). Snails have two pairs of tentacles on the head. Land snails have a light-sensitive eyespot located on each of the larger tentacles; water-dwelling snail eyespots are at the base of the tentacles. The smaller pair of tentacles is used for the sense of smell and the sense of touch. Diet: Most snails eat living and decaying plants, but some are scavengers and some are predators. They eat using a radula, a rough tongue-like organ that has thousands of tiny denticles (tooth-like protrusions). Predators of the Snail: Many animals eat snails, including birds, fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, beetles (and other insects), and people. ![]() What do snails eat? Before we ask this question it is worth discussing how they eat. A snail's mouth is located on the lower area of the head, close to the short tentacles. On the inside of the mouth is a special eating tool, called the radula. This is a muscular structure coated by thousands of tiny teeth. Snails eat by pushing the radula against a leaf or other vegetation and rasping it and scraping away particles. You can see this in action if you feed a snail some lettuce or apple. So, onto the important question! What do snails eat? In their natural habitat, land snails eat mushrooms, fruit, leaves and any other kind of vegetation they can find. Mostly, snails eat living plants, but also eat decaying ones. Other forms of food include plant bark, flowers and algae. In order to get a nutritional supply of calcium for their shells, snail food includes limestone and they also eat chalk from rocks. Snails have even been known to eat damp paper and cardboard! Do you know what Snails Eat? Take the Quiz below! |