Wikipedia:WikiProject Gastropods

Shortcut: WP:GAST

The gastropods, gasteropods, or univalves, are the largest and most successful class of mollusks, with 60,000-75,000 known living species. This class contains a vast number of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial species. Species include the snails and slugs, abalone, limpets, cowries, conch and most of the other animals that produce seashells.

The first gastropods were exclusively marine, with the earliest representatives of the group appearing in the Late Cambrian (Chippewaella, Strepsodiscus). By the Ordovician period the gastropods were a varied group present in a range of aquatic habitats. Fossil gastropods are less common during the Palaeozoic era than bivalves. By the Carboniferous period many of the shapes we see in living gastropods can be matched in the fossil record, but despite these similarities in appearance the majority of these older forms are not directly related to living forms. It was during the Mesozoic era that the ancestors of many of the living gastropods evolved.

Gastropods are one of the groups that record the changes in fauna caused by the advance and retreat of the Ice Sheets during the Pleistocene epoch.

Conchology is the scientific study of shells of mollusks, a branch of malacology.

In general, gastropod entries should have a taxobox.

Example taxobox Gastropod
Cypraea chinensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Cuvier, 1797
Subclasses
Eogastropoda (True Limpets and relatives) Orthogastropoda

This is something that has been inherited from the Tree of Life WikiProject.

Taxoboxes

From Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Taxoboxes

The full taxobox guide is located at Wikipedia:Taxobox usage.

Detailed taxonomic information, including notes on how taxa are defined and how they vary between different systems, belongs in the article proper. Where possible, however, a standard table will be provided to allow easier navigation between related groups and quick identification of what sort of organisms are being discussed. These are called taxoboxes. A typical taxobox is shown at right (it belongs on the top right of the page Cetacea).

There are three main sections to the taxobox:

• A header showing the name of the group, sometimes followed by a representative image.
• A table showing the placement of the group in a typical classification system.
• A footer, whose content varies, showing the binomial name or a species, or a list of subgroups for higher taxa.

Some items that are often included, but are not (necessarily) standardized, include:

• Range map - Found here - (see, for example, Orca)
• Synonyms (European lobster)

Position: The taxobox generally belongs at the top right corner of the article, unless it has been decided otherwise on the relevant talk page - for instance, if the article is not primarily about the biological group.

See also :

• Wikipedia:How to use tables