Are snails born with shells or do they grow?

Snails can be objects of fascination for kids playing outside. Lucky for the snails, they have their hard shells to protect them from children and predators alike. But are they born with that natural armor, or do they have to find it or grow it for themselves? read more

Snails are, in fact, born with shells, but they don’t initially look like how you might imagine them. Snails are hatched from eggs that are buried beneath the surface layer of the soil or, in the case of marine snails, placed in a protected area, like near a rock. read more

Land snails (at least) develop a shell while still in the egg, and when they hatch a baby snail, not a larva, emerges. It just grows the shell as it gets bigger. A few even hatch inside the mother (ovoviviparity). The shell develops by adding whorls It is a bit more complicated in some snails that live in the sea. read more

Most snails are indeed born with a shell; this shell is known as a protoconch. The word protoconch literally means “first, earliest, or original shell” and is often used when referring to an embryotic or larval shell of some classes of mollusks. However starting off this shell is transparent and soft to begin with. read more