Question

Jablonski and his coworkers found that, for slugs and snails (gastropods) of the Late Cretaceous period, the key to a broad geographic range at the species level and increased chances of surviving the mass extinction at the K-Pg boundary was the nature of their larval stage. What stage contributes to the increased geographic ranges of the gastropod taxa?

Answer 1

The larval stage in gastropods was crucial for broad geographic dispersal and survival during historical mass extinction events, such as the one at the K-Pg boundary.

Step-by-step explanation:

The larval stage in gastropods was found to be key to the broad geographic range and increased survival rates during the mass extinction at the K-Pg boundary. This stage, characterized by larvae that are capable of dispersing over long distances before settling down to mature, contributes to a species’ ability to colonize new areas and habitats. Gastropods are a successful group of animals which include snails and slugs; they exhibit a variety of shapes and sizes and can be found in diverse environments including oceans, freshwater, and land. A key evolutionary feature that gastropods undergo is torsion, which does not refer to the coiling of their shells but to the rotation of the gastropod's body during development.