Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includes many land and freshwater families, and several marine families.
The taxon Pulmonata as traditionally defined was found to be polyphyletic in a molecular study per Jörger et al., dating from 2010.[1]
Pulmonata are known from the Carboniferous period to the present.[2]
Pulmonates have a single atrium and kidney, and a concentrated symmetrical nervous system. The mantle cavity is on the right side of the body, and lacks gills, instead being converted into a vascularised lung. Most species have a shell, but no operculum, although the group does also include several shell-less slugs. Pulmonates are hermaphroditic, and some groups possess love darts.[3]
^ a b cJörger, Katharina M; Stöger, Isabella; Kano, Yasunori; Fukuda, Hiroshi; Knebelsberger, Thomas; Schrödl, Michael (2010). "On the origin of Acochlidia and other enigmatic euthyneuran gastropods, with implications for the systematics of Heterobranchia". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 323. Bibcode:2010BMCEE..10..323J. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-323. PMC 3087543. PMID 20973994.
^(in Czech) Pek I., Vašíček Z., Roček Z., Hajn. V. & Mikuláš R. 1996. Základy zoopaleontologie. Olomouc, 264 pp., ISBN 80-7067-599-3.
^Barnes, Robert D. (1982). Invertebrate Zoology. Philadelphia, PA: Holt-Saunders International. p. 377. ISBN 0-03-056747-5.
Wade, C. M.; Mordan, P. B.; Clarke, B. (2001). "A phylogeny of the land snails (Gastropoda: Pulmonata)". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 268 (1465): 413–422. doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.1372. PMC 1088622. PMID 11270439.
Holznagel, W. E.; Colgan, D. J.; Lydeard, C. (2010). "Pulmonate phylogeny based on 28S rRNA gene sequences: A framework for discussing habitat transitions and character transformation". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (3): 1017–1025. Bibcode:2010MolPE..57.1017H. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.09.021. PMID 20920591.