Nice article on veligers and a poem to boot!

Yes I'm a snail geek.....

 

http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/articles/articleofmonth/veliger/veligerpoem.htm

 

Complete with the "Ballad of the Veliger"  how can you not like such poetry!!  The ballad though is actually quite informative when you consider that the primary feature defines and sets gastropods apart is the process of torsion.  This process during the planktonic development  stage is one wherein the visceral mass of the body does a full 180* rotation in relation to the foot!  This moves the gills, mantle cavity, and anus to the other side above the head making the body no longer symmetrical (another taxon feature). 

  

A few theories exist around why gastropods adapted to this torsion process, the first and most widely accepted is that it allows the gastropod to hide it's head more deeply into the shell (hence the poem!).  Other theories are based around better use of water current for respiration / waste, and to aid adults in carrying the weight of the shell.

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Cool article. Tanks for sharing!

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Like all evolution, screwy history and random chance. And it just happened to work better than what came before. Or, that population just happened to get lucky when the meteor hit.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886