Question

What animal classification is a snail?

Answer 1

Hint: Snails belong to the largest class of Phylum Mollusca that is Class Gastropoda. It comprises more than $80\%$ of all molluscs.

Complete answer:
Scientific classification of snails:
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Mollusca
Class - Gastropoda
Order - Achatinoidea
Snails are extremely slow moving herbivores which are found on every continent in the world, except Antarctica. There are about 1000 different species of snails, varying from small snails weighing 0.01kg to large snails weighing 18kg. Depending on their habitat, snails are divided into three main groups; land snails, sea snails and freshwater snails.
These animals have the characteristic outer hard and coiled shell, found on their dorsal surface which they retract to in case of danger, like from a predator. They have an unsegmented body with a head, foot and tail. Their foot is long and muscular, which helps in locomotion, assisted with the secretion of mucus that prevents the soft body of the snail from drying out.
They possess a long ribbon-like tongue called radula, along with numerous microscopic tooth-like structures that acts as a file for slashing and breaking down food. The most common diet of snails are plants, but some snails are omnivorous and rarely carnivorous. On the other hand their extremely slow speeds makes them a very common prey to a number of predators like amphibians, rodents, fish and birds.
Reproduction involves copulation between two individual snails, even though they are hermaphrodite, that is they contain both sexes in the same individual. They lay very small eggs in burrows made in the ground or on covered leaves which hatch in a few weeks. Baby snails may take upto 2 years to grow into adults.

Note:
Shelled snails are also called true snails, while snails with no shells are actually slugs. Slugs are also classified in Class Gastropoda.
On an average, a snail lays 200 eggs at a time.