God Awful Things

I just remembered this conversation Spolans put forth over the weekend, though I don’t remember why it was put forth.. something about hot and cold blooded animals..

Do snails have blood? Let’s find out…
Biology of Snails

Body:respiration and blood circulation
The blood system in snails is open,with blood spaces and no veins.
The pigment is colorless,and is called haemocyanin,which contains copper.
The relative weak heart consists of a single thick walled ventricle and a single
thin walled auricle.The blood takes oxygen from the lung
and transports it to the auricle,and then to the ventricle.
The ventricle releases blood with oxygen in the arteries,after which the blood
goes to the tissues.The tissues take oxygen and food from the blood and excrete
waste products.The blood flows back to the lung by means of blood spaces instead
of veins.
The so-called lung(pulmonary cavity) lays on the inside of the roof of the visceral-sac.
Through the breathing-pore,the pneumostome,oxygen reaches the snails lung.
When the pneumostome is open the roof and bottom of the pulmonary cavity
are close together.When the bottom goes down the oxygen can flow into the lung.
Then the pneumostome closes and the bottom goes up,pushing the oxygen
in the body.It is comparable to the midriff in mammals.

Oh but wait…

Most ram’s horn snail species inhabit calm water rich in plants. They are also able to endure their home water falling dry for a certain period of time. In contrary to many other snail species, ram’s horn snails have got red blood – their (like humans’) blood pigment is haemoglobin. Aquarium keepers like very much specimens low in pigments, that look pink because of their blood shining through.

Via Fresh Water snails Pt. 2