Gastropods

Sometimes pattern only becomes evident when a series of specimens is compared. The Gastropod (snail) pattern is of an animal with a strong muscular 'foot' (the name comes from the Greek for Stomach Foot) protruding from below a single shell through a roundish opening which can be covered by a lid, the operculum. This opening is critical because the rest of the animal is protected by the armoured shell. In this series of Gastropods, the operculum is progressively narrowed, and finally in the Cowrie it is toothed, providing the narrowest possible opening for a given area of opening. In the process, the simple spiral of the shell is modified into something almost egg-shaped.

Gastropod 1 : Giant Snail (12k)	Gastropod 2 : Turret Shell (19k)	Gastropod 3 : Cone Shell (10k)	Gastropod 4 : Whelk (25k)	Gastropod 5 : Cowrie (23k)

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