Pulmonate

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to a class of mollusks characterized by having a lung-like structure for respiration in air
2. Describing organisms within the gastropod category that possess a pulmonary cavity for breathing
3. Pertaining to those invertebrates that utilize a modified gill or lung for extracting oxygen from the atmosphere

Etymology: "Pulmonate" describes the air-breathing snails and slugs, a group whose name is built from a Latin word for lung. The Latin "pulmo" meant "lung," and the suffix "-atus" added the sense of "having" or "provided with," so the combined form meant "having lungs." Scientists in the New Latin of the scholarly world formed the term this way, drawing on classical roots to name a feature that set these mollusks apart from their water-breathing relatives. The surprise lies in how literal the name is. Many snails breathe through a gill-like organ, but pulmonates have instead converted the inside of the mantle cavity into a vascularised sac that takes in air at a breathing hole. Naming the group after its lungs was a direct description of the anatomy rather than a metaphor.

Synonyms: lung-bearing