gaˈsträpədə noun plural
Usage: capitalized
Etymology: New Latin, from gastr- + -poda
: a large and varied class of Mollusca known from the Cambrian on that includes mollusks with a univalve shell (as a periwinkle or whelk) which is not divided into chambers and is usually spirally coiled and some (as the slugs and heteropods) with the shell greatly reduced or lacking, usually with a definite head bearing one or two pairs of sensory tentacles, a pair of eyes sometimes at the end of the tentacles, and a mouth often at the end of a proboscis and in some instances fitted with a toothed radula, with the ventral surface modified into a flattened foot used in creeping or lobed (as in pteropods) for swimming, and with oviparous or sometimes ovoviviparous reproduction, and usually with distinct larval trochophore and veliger stages — see euthyneura , streptoneura ; compare scaphopoda
• gastropodous adjective