A comparative study of the ultrastructure and mineralogy of calcified land snail eggs (Pulmonata: Stylommatophora).

This study indicates that eggs containing calcium carbonate crystals occur in at least 36 of the 65 known families of the land snails (class Gastropoda: order Stylommatophora). Eggs from 22 of these families were available for examination. The x-ray diffraction data, available for the first time for 21 of these families, shows that these egg shells are all made of calcite only, or of a combination of calcite with smaller amounts of aragonite. All of the snail (body) shells examined were made of aragonite only. This is the first ultrastructural investigation of these egg shells, and it indicates that the eggs exhibit enough structural diversity to allow identification of parental animals to genus, and often to species level solely on the basis of egg shell ultrastructure. All of the calcified eggs may be divided into two groups: (1) partly calcified, with discrete crystals of CaCo3 dispersed in the jelly layer, and (2) heavily calcified, with a hard, brittle egg shell made of fused crystals of CaCO3 much like an avian egg. Both types of calcified eggs occur in oviparous as well as in ovoviviparous snails. Because of the wide distribution of calcified eggs in the Stylommatophora, and because of the occurrence of heavily calcified eggs in ancient families such as Partulidae, Endodontidae, and Zonitidae, the calcified egg is viewed as a primitive land snail trait associated with terrestrial adaptation. The function of the calcified egg shell, in addition to mechanical support of egg contents, is to supply the developing embryo with enough calcium to form the embryonic shell by the time of hatching.