by Renee Durham
OfficialKidsMag.com
Some creatures are really interesting to look at. You see
them, but you don't REALLY notice them. Occasionally, you
just have to stop, bend down and take a closer look.
Slugs are one of those creatures. But what are they good
for? We're going to explore slugs and find out.
In a world where we all want things fast like bikes and video
games and even our food, this little creature crawls along
barely moving. Large slugs like the banana slug travel at 6.5
inches per minute, so it takes almost 7 days for a slug to travel
a mile. That means a slug would take 237 days to travel from
Fayetteville to Bella Vista.
What is a slug?
Slugs have no skeletons, and crawl around on what looks like one
big huge foot, and they only have one lung. Slugs are gastropods,
distantly related to mollusks like squids, mussels, snails and oysters.
There are more than 40,000 gastropod species.
Bilaterally symmetrical - the body is
divided into equal right and left halves
Debris - the remains of something
broken down or destroyed
Decomposition - to break down or
be broken down into simpler parts or
substances especially by the action of living
things (as bacteria and fungi) Leaves
decomposed on the forest floor.
Evolved - to develop gradually;
come into being
Gastropods - Snails, slugs, conchs,
and many other similar animals
with or without shells are all called
gastropods by scientists. The word
gastropod comes from Greek and
means "stomach foot," a name that
owes its existence to the unusual
anatomy of snails.
46 • Of f icialKidsMag.com • MARCH 2020
