Importance of Taxonomy and Identification in Shellfish Trade

The gastropods constitute a large and highly diversified class within the phylum Mollusca with 1,00,000 living species, of which the estimated number of valid marine species are around 50,000 to 55,000 (Mollusca Base, 2021). Gastropods encompass 80 % of living molluscs species. Gastropods are considered as the oldest known fossils with their shells being evolved in rocks 540 million years ago. Many gastropods possess a shell that protects the soft body of the animal. In most species, the coiled shell opens on the right-hand side (dextral). Rarely, right-hand coiled species will produce left-hand coiled (sinistral) shells and vice versa