Rare snail found after 110 years in Fife

An isolated population of rare land snail last recorded in Fife 110 years ago has been rediscovered. The plaited door snail (Cochlodina laminata) sighting was received by Fife Nature Records Centre, following a report from a member of the public.

The snail, which has a distinctive corkscrew shell, was last recorded in West Fife near Oakley in 1901. The new discovery near Blairhall is thought to be the only known population in Fife.

Hitchhiking Snails Fly from Ocean to Ocean

ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2011) — Smithsonian scientists and colleagues report that snails successfully crossed Central America, long considered an impenetrable barrier to marine organisms, twice in the past million years -- both times probably by flying across Mexico, stuck to the legs or riding on the bellies of shorebirds and introducing new genes that contribute to the marine biodiversity on each coast.

"Just as people use airplanes to fly overseas, marine snails may use birds to fly over land," said Mark Torchin, staff scientist at the Smithsonian. "It just happens much less frequently. There's also a big difference between one or two individuals ending up in a new place, and a really successful invasion, in which several animals survive, reproduce and establish new populations."

The discovery of the hitchhiking snails, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: B, has broad implications. "Not only snails, but many intertidal organisms may be able to 'fly' with birds," said first author of the study, Osamu Miura, assistant professor at Japan's Kochi University and former postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Chance events that occur only once in a great while may be extremely important in the history of life. In 1940, George Gaylord Simpson, who studied natural history as recorded in fossils, coined the term "sweepstakes dispersal" to describe the unlikely events in which animals cross over a barrier resulting in major consequences for the diversity of life on Earth. Simpson was thinking about land-based animals that might "get lucky" and cross between continents or islands by floating on rafts of debris. Sometimes such events result in devastating biological invasions -- introducing new diseases, wiping out resident species or causing economic damage to food crops.

The idea of land snails hitching rides on birds goes back to Charles Darwin, who speculated that migratory birds could transport snails to distant places. In fact, birds are thought to have carried land snails 5,500 miles from Europe to Tristan de Cunha Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and back. But this is the first report of a marine snail "flying" from one ocean to another.

Scientists working at the Smithsonian in Panama have long been interested in how the rise of the Central American land bridge more than 3 million years ago drove speciation and increased biodiversity. It formed a barrier between marine species, some of which evolved in their new surroundings, becoming new "sister" species that could no longer mate with their former relatives.
By studying the genetics of two sister species of Horn Snails, Cerithideopsis californica and C. pliculosa, collected at 29 different locations in mudflats and mangrove habitats from California to Panama on the Pacific and from Texas to Panama on the Atlantic, the researchers discovered that, about 750,000 years ago, these snails invaded the Atlantic from the Pacific, and then, about 72,000 years ago, Atlantic populations returned to invade Pacific shores.

"Shorebirds mostly move back and forth across Central America via a couple of flyways," said Torchin. "We think that the snails were able to cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico because it's a major bird flyway and is a relatively flat and narrow stretch of land with ideal tidal flat habitat on either side."

"There is a chance that the hitchhiking snails benefited native populations by bringing in new genes that helped them resist common parasites that castrate the snails and keep them from reproducing," said Ryan Hechinger, associate research biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Now we are looking at the parasite genes to see if they jumped Central America too."

Understanding that such hitchhiking occurs can help reveal where new species might have become established or where they might establish in the future," said Eldredge Bermingham, STRI director and staff scientist."I am here in Panama watching as snails fly over my head. Tongue in cheek, I fail to understand why others did not notice this before! I suspect our interpretation of this phylogeographic pattern would make George Gaylord Simpson smile."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914143643.htm

Ready, steady, slow

All roads lead to Congham this Saturday for anyone who is anyone (and last year that topped 200 entries) in the slow-moving world of the gastropod.

The World Snail Racing Championships have been held at Congham, near King's Lynn, since the 1960s, after founder Tom Elwes witnessed the event in France.

Organiser, Hilary Scase explained: "Snails like damp conditions and as Congham is surrounded by ponds and is very low lying it is just right for snails.

"Competition is fierce and with ideal conditions this year times are expected to be fast - there are hopes that the record course could be smashed."

The record of two minutes, over the 13-inch damp cloth covered table top course, was posted by a snail called Archie in 1995.

Last year's winner Sidney recorded a more sedate winning time of three minutes 41 seconds to pocket winning connections a silver tankard filled with lettuce.

Hilary continued: "Snail trainer Neil Riseborough has been preparing the ground for weeks and has a special secret for encouraging the snails to put out their hones and head at top speed for the finishing line.

"Children from local schools have been training snails for months with ambitions that a special snail "found in granddad's cabbage patch" could be a winner.

"But there is no knowing. Snails come from all over the country, anybody can take part, a rank outsider might just surprise everybody.

"Congham is to snail racing what Newmarket is to horse racing," Hilary concluded.

The World Snail Racing Championships are part of Congham Fete, which helps to raise money for St Andrew's Church and takes place from 2pm on the cricket field on Saturday 16 July.

For more information: www.snailracing.net

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/world_snail_racing_championships

Tiny snails can survive digestion

Scientists found 15 per cent of the sails eaten by Japanese white-eyes survived digestion and were found alive in the birds’ droppings.

Commenting on the study, which was published in the Journal of Biogeography, researcher Shinichiro Wada said: ‘We were surprised that a high rate, about 15 per cent, of snails were still alive after passing through the gut of [the] birds.

Read on...

Endangered gourmet sea snail could be doomed by increasing ocean acidity

Public release date: 25-May-2011

Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia's already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species.

The northern abalone--prized as a gourmet delicacy--has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja California to Alaska. Even though British Columbia's northern abalone commercial fisheries where closed in 1990 to protect dwindling populations, the species has continued to struggle, largely due to poaching.

To better understand the impact climate change — and specifically, increasing ocean acidity — has on this endangered species, UBC researchers exposed northern abalone larvae to water containing increased levels of CO2. Increases from 400 to 1,800 parts per million killed 40 per cent of larvae, decreased the size of larvae that did survive, and increased the rate of shell abnormalities.

"This is quite bad news, not only in terms of the endangered populations of abalone in the wild, but also the impact it might have on the prospects for aquaculture and coastal economics," says Christopher Harley, Associate Professor with the Department of Zoology and one of the authors of the study.

"And because the species is already thought to be limited by reproductive output and recruitment, these effects are likely to scale up to the population level, creating greater limits on population growth."

Average CO2 levels in the open ocean hover at 380 parts per million, a number which is excepted to increase slowly over the next century.

What concerns the researchers are the much higher spikes in dissolved CO2 that are already being observed along the BC coast, particularly in late spring and early summer when northern abalone populations are spawning.

The findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

"While we're looking at a single species that is culturally important as a source of food and artistic inspiration for many coastal Pacific Northwest First Nations, this information may have implications for other abalone species in other parts of the world," says Ryan Crim, lead author on the paper who conducted the research while a graduate student with the UBC Department of Zoology.

Other species of abalone are farmed around the world, principally in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. The black, white and pink abalone are also endangered on the west coast--red abalone are still an economically viable food species.

The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and conducted in collaboration with the Bamfield-Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project, a small abalone hatchery in Bamfield which has subsequently gone out of business. The dual mission of the hatchery was to produce cultured abalone for high end restaurants, and to restore endangered abalone by culturing and releasing larvae and juveniles to the wild.

Harley and Crim will continue to work with the aquaculture industry to study the effects of acidification on oysters and other shellfish.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uobc-egs052511.php

New species of marine snail found off Florida

Biologists discover new species in fisherman's catch

April 2011. Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), along with scientists from California State Polytechnic University, have identified a new marine species of nudibranch, Chromodoris fentoni, a type of shell-less snail found in the Gulf of Mexico.

FWC biologists first observed this nudibranch when commercial aquarium-trade fisherman Daniel Fenton donated sponges and other specimens to the FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) in St. Petersburg in 2009. Fenton collected the specimens from the Gulf of Mexico, off Tarpon Springs. While sorting through the donation, FWRI biologists Nancy Sheridan and Joan Herrera observed the unusual creature.

"We were unable to identify one of the nudibranchs and realized that it was possible we were seeing something entirely new," said Sheridan. "The discovery was especially rewarding because it resulted from a cooperative effort between industry and science."

Read on

Ancient squidlike creature's final meal revealed

X-ray scan shows tiny crustaceans stuck between ammonite's teeth

By Stephanie Pappas Senior writer
LiveScience

Millions of years ago, a squidlike creature called an ammonite died with the remains of its last meal wedged between its teeth. Now, new high-tech images reveal that meal — a mini-snail and three tiny crustaceans — and shed light on the diet of these once-common creatures.

"It gives us an insight because we never knew what these ammonites were eating," study researcher Neil Landman, a curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told LiveScience. "They were such a big part of the ocean biota ... Now, for the first time, we think, 'Oh, we've got them. They're eating plankton in the water.'"

There's nothing in today's world quite like an ammonite. Like the squid and the octopus, ammonites were cephalopods, a type of mollusk, but that's about as far as the similarities go. They roamed the seas from 407 million to 65 million years ago, when they went extinct. Ammonite fossils are common, especially in South Dakota where Landman and his colleagues found their specimens.

Unlike today's squid and octopus, ammonites had external shells. Some species' shells were spirals, much like that of their closest-living look-alike, the nautilus. Other species had shells shaped like unicorn horns. It was one of these long-shelled groups, the baculites, that Landman and his colleagues examined.

Delicate specimens

Because baculite jaws are small and delicate, it's difficult to examine them without destroying the fossil specimen. Even if you were willing to slice up a specimen for examination, the process is likely to destroy the very structures you're trying to study, Landman said.

So the research team turned to a new technology, synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The technology is much like a very detailed CT scan. X-rays create virtual slices of the specimen, which are then stitched together into a three-dimensional image by computer software.

"You rely on all of this sophisticated software that puts all of these slices together and, my god, you're just astonished at what you see," Landman said.

In this case, the researchers saw a large lower jaw with thin teeth. Like many mollusks today, baculites had radula, or tonguelike structures covered with teeth like a comb. These structures stretch out like a conveyer belt to shepherd food to the esophagus, Landman said.

For ancient prey, the effect would have looked like something out of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Landman said.

"If you were the size of a crustacean swimming in the water and you would see what looked to be a giant ammonite coming at you with a giant, beaklike jaw, you'd worry, I think," he said. "If you had the capacity for worry."

The last supper

One of the most amazing images revealed by the scans shows fragments of planktonic, or floating, crustacean stuck between the teeth of one of the ammonite fossils. The ammonite died with its last meal still in its mouth: three crustacean pieces just a few millimeters in length and a tiny larval snail. [ See a photo of an unfortunate crustacean]

That's fairly strong evidence that baculites were swimming in the water column snacking on plankton, said David Jacobs, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Los Angeles. The find makes sense, considering that the baculites' environment likely wouldn't have had much oxygen to support plant life on the bottom, Jacobs told LiveScience. It's also hard to imagine a 2-foot-long shelled animal shaped like an ice-cream cone chasing down large prey, he said.

"It really is a nice confirmation of what people might have thought but didn't have a lot of supporting evidence for," said Jacobs, who was not involved in the study.

The find also helps researchers better understand how ammonites fit into their ancient ecosystem. The question of what baculites ate has been a "hot debate," said Peter Harries, a paleontologist at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the study. The findings may not apply to other species of ammonites, he said, but they're important for understanding the ancient food web.

"It tells us a lot about the baculites, which during that time were extremely dominant," Harries told LiveScience. "So I think there it really has helped nail down their life habits."

Landman already has some theories about baculites' role in the circle of life. Baculites in the water column may have excreted fecal pellets (i.e., poop) that then fell to the ocean floor and provided snacks for bottom-feeders, he said. And the animals' habit of feeding on plankton may have spelled their downfall during the catastrophe that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

"Lots and lots of plankton became extinct at the time and, curiously, so did the ammonites," Landman said. "This is one of those 'aha' moments. Maybe the ammonites were relying on plankton as a food source, and when the plankton suffered ... maybe this had a direct consequence on the ammonites."

The researchers detailed their findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Ancient squidlike creature's final meal revealed

X-ray scan shows tiny crustaceans stuck between ammonite's teeth

By Stephanie Pappas Senior writer
LiveScience

Millions of years ago, a squidlike creature called an ammonite died with the remains of its last meal wedged between its teeth. Now, new high-tech images reveal that meal — a mini-snail and three tiny crustaceans — and shed light on the diet of these once-common creatures.

"It gives us an insight because we never knew what these ammonites were eating," study researcher Neil Landman, a curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told LiveScience. "They were such a big part of the ocean biota ... Now, for the first time, we think, 'Oh, we've got them. They're eating plankton in the water.'"

There's nothing in today's world quite like an ammonite. Like the squid and the octopus, ammonites were cephalopods, a type of mollusk, but that's about as far as the similarities go. They roamed the seas from 407 million to 65 million years ago, when they went extinct. Ammonite fossils are common, especially in South Dakota where Landman and his colleagues found their specimens.

Unlike today's squid and octopus, ammonites had external shells. Some species' shells were spirals, much like that of their closest-living look-alike, the nautilus. Other species had shells shaped like unicorn horns. It was one of these long-shelled groups, the baculites, that Landman and his colleagues examined.

Delicate specimens

Because baculite jaws are small and delicate, it's difficult to examine them without destroying the fossil specimen. Even if you were willing to slice up a specimen for examination, the process is likely to destroy the very structures you're trying to study, Landman said.

So the research team turned to a new technology, synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The technology is much like a very detailed CT scan. X-rays create virtual slices of the specimen, which are then stitched together into a three-dimensional image by computer software.

"You rely on all of this sophisticated software that puts all of these slices together and, my god, you're just astonished at what you see," Landman said.

In this case, the researchers saw a large lower jaw with thin teeth. Like many mollusks today, baculites had radula, or tonguelike structures covered with teeth like a comb. These structures stretch out like a conveyer belt to shepherd food to the esophagus, Landman said.

For ancient prey, the effect would have looked like something out of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Landman said.

"If you were the size of a crustacean swimming in the water and you would see what looked to be a giant ammonite coming at you with a giant, beaklike jaw, you'd worry, I think," he said. "If you had the capacity for worry."

The last supper

One of the most amazing images revealed by the scans shows fragments of planktonic, or floating, crustacean stuck between the teeth of one of the ammonite fossils. The ammonite died with its last meal still in its mouth: three crustacean pieces just a few millimeters in length and a tiny larval snail. [ See a photo of an unfortunate crustacean]

That's fairly strong evidence that baculites were swimming in the water column snacking on plankton, said David Jacobs, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Los Angeles. The find makes sense, considering that the baculites' environment likely wouldn't have had much oxygen to support plant life on the bottom, Jacobs told LiveScience. It's also hard to imagine a 2-foot-long shelled animal shaped like an ice-cream cone chasing down large prey, he said.

"It really is a nice confirmation of what people might have thought but didn't have a lot of supporting evidence for," said Jacobs, who was not involved in the study.

The find also helps researchers better understand how ammonites fit into their ancient ecosystem. The question of what baculites ate has been a "hot debate," said Peter Harries, a paleontologist at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the study. The findings may not apply to other species of ammonites, he said, but they're important for understanding the ancient food web.

"It tells us a lot about the baculites, which during that time were extremely dominant," Harries told LiveScience. "So I think there it really has helped nail down their life habits."

Landman already has some theories about baculites' role in the circle of life. Baculites in the water column may have excreted fecal pellets (i.e., poop) that then fell to the ocean floor and provided snacks for bottom-feeders, he said. And the animals' habit of feeding on plankton may have spelled their downfall during the catastrophe that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

"Lots and lots of plankton became extinct at the time and, curiously, so did the ammonites," Landman said. "This is one of those 'aha' moments. Maybe the ammonites were relying on plankton as a food source, and when the plankton suffered ... maybe this had a direct consequence on the ammonites."

The researchers detailed their findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

'Left-handed' coiling snails survive more snake attacks

Snails with shells that coil anti-clockwise are less likely to fall prey to snakes than their clockwise-coiling cousins, scientists have discovered.


The arrangement of the snakes' teeth makes it difficult for the reptiles to grasp these "left-handed" snails.

The effect of this advantage on the survival of Satsuma snails is so great, say the researchers, that they could separate into a distinct species.

Biologists in Japan report the finding in the journal Nature Communications.

Angle of attack
Satsuma snails come in two forms: those which have shells that coil anti-clockwise, considered sinistral or "left-handed" and those that coil clockwise, considered "right-handed".

Land snails copulate face-to-face, and a snail with a reverse-coiled shell has its whole body reversed - including the position of its genitals.

This means that oppositely coiled individuals are anatomically incompatible when it comes to mating, so the scientists were puzzled as to why "reverse-coiled" snails continued to survive and evolve.

To investigate, the team, led by Masaki Hoso from Tohoku University in Sendai, set up "predation experiments".


They observed snail-eater snakes' (Pareas iwasaki) as they attempted to eat the snails.

To consume the soft-bodied molluscs, the predators had to extract them from their shells.

"When attacking, the snake always tilts the head leftward," Dr Hoso told BBC News.

The snake grasped the snail with its upper jaw and inserted its lower jaw into the shell to extract the soft body.

The "right-handedness" of this sequence of movements, Dr Hoso explained, means that the snake "cannot grasp [left-handed] or sinistral snails well".

The scientists wrote: "This study illustrates how a single gene for reproductive incompatibility could generate a new species by natural selection."

By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9264000/9264808.stm

'Left-handed' coiling snails survive more snake attacks

Snails with shells that coil anti-clockwise are less likely to fall prey to snakes than their clockwise-coiling cousins, scientists have discovered.


The arrangement of the snakes' teeth makes it difficult for the reptiles to grasp these "left-handed" snails.

The effect of this advantage on the survival of Satsuma snails is so great, say the researchers, that they could separate into a distinct species.

Biologists in Japan report the finding in the journal Nature Communications.

Angle of attack
Satsuma snails come in two forms: those which have shells that coil anti-clockwise, considered sinistral or "left-handed" and those that coil clockwise, considered "right-handed".

Land snails copulate face-to-face, and a snail with a reverse-coiled shell has its whole body reversed - including the position of its genitals.

This means that oppositely coiled individuals are anatomically incompatible when it comes to mating, so the scientists were puzzled as to why "reverse-coiled" snails continued to survive and evolve.

To investigate, the team, led by Masaki Hoso from Tohoku University in Sendai, set up "predation experiments".


They observed snail-eater snakes' (Pareas iwasaki) as they attempted to eat the snails.

To consume the soft-bodied molluscs, the predators had to extract them from their shells.

"When attacking, the snake always tilts the head leftward," Dr Hoso told BBC News.

The snake grasped the snail with its upper jaw and inserted its lower jaw into the shell to extract the soft body.

The "right-handedness" of this sequence of movements, Dr Hoso explained, means that the snake "cannot grasp [left-handed] or sinistral snails well".

The scientists wrote: "This study illustrates how a single gene for reproductive incompatibility could generate a new species by natural selection."

By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9264000/9264808.stm

National Trust staff given snail handling lessons

National Trust staff at a Roman villa undergoing restoration work have been given snail-handling lessons in order to protect a rare species from being crushed under builders' boots

Operation Roman Snail has been laid on to protect the molluscs, which were introduced to the country 2,000 years ago by the occupying soldiers.

Brought across the Channel as food, some managed to escape the legionnaires' frying pans and set up isolated colonies across the south of England. One group set up home is at Chedworth Roman Villa, near Cirencester in the Cotswolds, where work has started on a £3 million project to build overhead walkways so visitors can view its stunning mosaics.

As well as teaching staff how to relocate the snails, the Trust is embedding netting in the ground to keep them off the building site and building wildlife havens to attract any specimens which make it into the at-risk area.

By Alun Rees
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8132270/National-Trust-staff-given-snail-handling-lessons.html

National Trust staff given snail handling lessons

National Trust staff at a Roman villa undergoing restoration work have been given snail-handling lessons in order to protect a rare species from being crushed under builders' boots

Operation Roman Snail has been laid on to protect the molluscs, which were introduced to the country 2,000 years ago by the occupying soldiers.

Brought across the Channel as food, some managed to escape the legionnaires' frying pans and set up isolated colonies across the south of England. One group set up home is at Chedworth Roman Villa, near Cirencester in the Cotswolds, where work has started on a £3 million project to build overhead walkways so visitors can view its stunning mosaics.

As well as teaching staff how to relocate the snails, the Trust is embedding netting in the ground to keep them off the building site and building wildlife havens to attract any specimens which make it into the at-risk area.

By Alun Rees
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8132270/National-Trust-staff-given-snail-handling-lessons.html

More than 200 new snails of the same genus described in a single study

Huge number of new snail species from the South Pacific

October 2010. Two world experts in micro molluscs, Anselmo Peñas and Emilio Rolán, have made an unprecedented description in a scientific publication of a combined total of 209 snail species. Commissioned by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the study was unveiled in September in the French capital, and it covers the most new species from a single genus of any study to date.

"Never have so many species from a single genus, nor even from a single family, been described in one single study", Anselmo Peñas, lead author of the collaborative monograph between the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris and Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), and one of the world's leading experts on the Pyramidelloidae superfamily, tells SINC.

In 2000, the Paris museum commissioned Anselmo Peñas and Emilio Rolán to carry out the study on deep water Pyramidelloidae from the tropical waters of the South Pacific. This is the first study to have described 272 species of snails from the genus Turbonilla, which were discovered over the past 30 years during international ocean research campaigns in waters between 100 and 1,700 metres deep off New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Polynesia.

The study has been published in volume 26 of the Scientific Publications of the Paris Natural History Museum, and has been described by its authors as "more than an achievement". "If there were a Guinness world record for Science, this would be one without a shadow of a doubt", say the experts, both of whom are retired and collectors of micro molluscs.


"This study has been harder and larger than others, and it has been a great challenge for us because it involved deep water material that was also from a region that we were not familiar with, and it also involved a large number of species, which made it even more complicated", Emilio Rolán, co-author of the monograph and a collaborator at the University of Santiago de Compostela, tells SINC.

Ten years of study
A decade of analysis, evaluations, comparisons, rulings out and contacts made with museums from all around the world made it possible to confirm the finding of 209 species new to science. "It's really incredible", says Peñas of the number of snails. Out of the remaining species studied, around 30 were already known and a further 33 did not provide sufficient material to make it possible to describe them as new species.

"When the director of Malacology from the Museum of Paris told us there were a lot of species, we smiled, because we are old hands at this, and we thought there would be around 20 or 30 new species. The surprising thing was when we saw they were all different, with more and more turning up", explains Rolán.

"The novelty is not only in the description of so many species, but also in the fact that they all belong to a single genus, Turbonilla, to a single family", points out Peñas. According to the expert, so many species from a single genus have never been described before in a single study, not even in the 19th Century, when the largest number of species were described, nor during the 20th Century.

The difficulty of identifying Pyramidelloidae
Identifying molluscs from the Turbonilla genus is not as easy as it is for other families, such as the Conidae, the most numerous family of gastropod molluscs along with the Pyramidelloidae. Their lack of a radula (molluscs' 'teeth', which are used to identify the species) and their tiny, almost microscopic, size (less than 10 millimetres), made the authors' work harder and longer, requiring them to spend long periods at the Paris museum.

"Since there were so many and they were so small, it was impossible to separate them by sight alone, so we had to take photographs with an electron microscope and then arrange them. In total, there were 1,300 photos. It's been a huge job", explains Rolán.

Another distinctive feature of this family is parasitation: "It is known that the Pyramidelloidae feed off the body juices of other molluscs such as the common mussel and sand mason worms, but we don't know how many Pyramidelloidae are mollusc parasites", says Peñas. Since they have no radula, these molluscs feed on others using a kind of trunk, which they stick into their soft juices.

The work of the two Spanish experts does not end here. This is the first part of their study, which over the next two years will lead to the publication of new studies on other genera in the same family that will be "almost as important as the first one".

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/snail-species.html

More than 200 new snails of the same genus described in a single study

Huge number of new snail species from the South Pacific

October 2010. Two world experts in micro molluscs, Anselmo Peñas and Emilio Rolán, have made an unprecedented description in a scientific publication of a combined total of 209 snail species. Commissioned by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the study was unveiled in September in the French capital, and it covers the most new species from a single genus of any study to date.

"Never have so many species from a single genus, nor even from a single family, been described in one single study", Anselmo Peñas, lead author of the collaborative monograph between the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris and Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), and one of the world's leading experts on the Pyramidelloidae superfamily, tells SINC.

In 2000, the Paris museum commissioned Anselmo Peñas and Emilio Rolán to carry out the study on deep water Pyramidelloidae from the tropical waters of the South Pacific. This is the first study to have described 272 species of snails from the genus Turbonilla, which were discovered over the past 30 years during international ocean research campaigns in waters between 100 and 1,700 metres deep off New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Polynesia.

The study has been published in volume 26 of the Scientific Publications of the Paris Natural History Museum, and has been described by its authors as "more than an achievement". "If there were a Guinness world record for Science, this would be one without a shadow of a doubt", say the experts, both of whom are retired and collectors of micro molluscs.


"This study has been harder and larger than others, and it has been a great challenge for us because it involved deep water material that was also from a region that we were not familiar with, and it also involved a large number of species, which made it even more complicated", Emilio Rolán, co-author of the monograph and a collaborator at the University of Santiago de Compostela, tells SINC.

Ten years of study
A decade of analysis, evaluations, comparisons, rulings out and contacts made with museums from all around the world made it possible to confirm the finding of 209 species new to science. "It's really incredible", says Peñas of the number of snails. Out of the remaining species studied, around 30 were already known and a further 33 did not provide sufficient material to make it possible to describe them as new species.

"When the director of Malacology from the Museum of Paris told us there were a lot of species, we smiled, because we are old hands at this, and we thought there would be around 20 or 30 new species. The surprising thing was when we saw they were all different, with more and more turning up", explains Rolán.

"The novelty is not only in the description of so many species, but also in the fact that they all belong to a single genus, Turbonilla, to a single family", points out Peñas. According to the expert, so many species from a single genus have never been described before in a single study, not even in the 19th Century, when the largest number of species were described, nor during the 20th Century.

The difficulty of identifying Pyramidelloidae
Identifying molluscs from the Turbonilla genus is not as easy as it is for other families, such as the Conidae, the most numerous family of gastropod molluscs along with the Pyramidelloidae. Their lack of a radula (molluscs' 'teeth', which are used to identify the species) and their tiny, almost microscopic, size (less than 10 millimetres), made the authors' work harder and longer, requiring them to spend long periods at the Paris museum.

"Since there were so many and they were so small, it was impossible to separate them by sight alone, so we had to take photographs with an electron microscope and then arrange them. In total, there were 1,300 photos. It's been a huge job", explains Rolán.

Another distinctive feature of this family is parasitation: "It is known that the Pyramidelloidae feed off the body juices of other molluscs such as the common mussel and sand mason worms, but we don't know how many Pyramidelloidae are mollusc parasites", says Peñas. Since they have no radula, these molluscs feed on others using a kind of trunk, which they stick into their soft juices.

The work of the two Spanish experts does not end here. This is the first part of their study, which over the next two years will lead to the publication of new studies on other genera in the same family that will be "almost as important as the first one".

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/snail-species.html

Do snails have a 'homing instinct'?

Ted Thornhill - 4th August, 2010

Keen gardener Mrs Ruth Brooks has begun a down-to-earth experiment to discover whether snails have a homing instinct.

The 69-year-old, who’s also a writer and keen amateur scientist, has been battling the slimy creatures for years and has spent hundreds of pounds keeping them at bay.

However, she’s been fighting them humanely, without putting down slug pellets, which she believes is bad for the soil and visiting wildlife, such as birds and squirrels.

One of the methods she’s been deploying in her Totnes, Devon, home is to physically remove the snails and put them on nearby wasteland.

Despite this, Mrs Brooks still has a snail problem – and now she’s begun an experiment to see if they are simply returning back to her garden.

Green-fingered types have long-held that snails do have a kind of in-built sat-nav, but scientists dismiss them as being far too simple to possess a homing instinct.

She’s hoping to solve the mystery once and for all with the help of Dr Dave Hodgson, a bioscience expert from the University of Exeter.

Their study is part of BBC Radio 4’s Material World BBC amateur Scientist of the Year contest.

Ms Brooks said: ‘I've always wanted to know whether the snails that decimate my plants just come back when I move them, and if they do, what is their homing distance? How far away would I have to move them so they won't come back?

‘We're hoping the evidence will give us an insight into the behaviour of snails, as well as help us find a way to deal with the problems they pose.’

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/837065-do-snails-have-a-homing-instinct

Snails on crystal meth: The facts

Profs spend days poking hopped-up molluscs with sticks

By Lewis Page
Posted in Biology, 28th May 2010 14:27 GMT

In a development whose importance it would be difficult to exaggerate, scientists have produced research answering one of the great questions facing humanity in the 21st century: what happens if you get snails hopped up on crystal meth and poke them with sticks?

The drug-pushing scientists in question are Barbara Sorg of Washington State Uni and Ken Lukowiak of the University of Calgary. The mollusc they chose for their experiments was the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis.

The two snail savants placed their slimy drug-slaves into pond water which they had spiked with methamphetamine, described as "a highly addictive drug that seduces victims by increasing self-esteem and sexual pleasure, and inducing euphoria".

Having got their slippery subjects well addled on this delightful but damaging chemical treat, Sorg and Lukowiak then tested their memories by means of varying the amount of oxygen in the pondwater and poking them with sticks.

Perhaps we should explain. Low oxygen levels often occur in normal outdoor ponds not laced with illegal narcotics, and in this case the local L stagnalis will extend their "pneumostomes" (breathing tubes) above the surface to get more life-giving oxy.

However, it is possible to train them not to do this by sitting next to the pond or lab tank and poking any suffocating snail which dares to wave its squelchy snorkels. This is actually a standard, widely-used method among biologists for testing snails' intellectual powers.

After a lengthy and painstaking period of sitting in the lab poking snails immersed in various different mixtures of pondwater and drugs, Lukowiak and Sorg report that in fact methamphetamine makes snails' memories much better. According to a statement issued on their behalf:

Memories formed under the influence of meth seem to be harder to forget, possibly because the drug disrupts the mechanisms for forgetting, and could help us to understand how amphetamines enhance memory in humans.

The research is to be published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Sorg and Lukowiak have previously carried out similar studies involving snails on cocaine. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/28/snails_on_crystal_meth/

Florida on guard against giant snails

PHOTO: J.M.Garg

Efforts are underway to prevent the reestablishment of African mollusks, which threaten crops and public health.

March 14, 2010 By Anthony Colarossi

Reporting from Orlando, Fla. — They're not as menacing as Burmese pythons proliferating in the Everglades, but giant African snails are targets of the government too.

The invasive mollusks are considered a major plant pest and a potential public health threat because they can spread diseases, including meningitis. Now federal and state authorities are seeking to prevent the large, slimy, shell-toting snails from reestablishing themselves in Florida.

Once established, agricultural officials said, the mollusks "can create a giant swath of destruction."

"The idea is that these are prolific breeders," said Mark Fagan, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "Our primary concern is the potential harm it can do to agricultural crops, as well as [public] health concerns."

The Florida department, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are leading the mollusk-prevention effort.

Known as Achatina fulica, the species is one of the world's largest land snails. They can grow to 8 inches long and 4.5 inches in diameter. It is illegal to import the snails into the United States without a permit.

The snail has not been an issue in Florida for several decades. In 1966, a child smuggled three snails into the Miami area as pets. His grandmother later released them into a garden, and by 1973, the population had grown to more than 18,000, officials said.

Over the next decade, officials spent more than $1 million to eradicate them. That effort is considered the only successful giant African snail eradication on record.

Scientists say the snails consume at least 500 kinds of plants, including citrus crops, Fagan said.

They also can damage buildings by consuming plaster, stucco and other materials they need to grow their shells.

They carry parasites and worse. "These snails are known to carry meningitis bacteria, so it's also a health concern," Fagan said.

The snails are identified by seven to nine whorls, or spirals. They have a brownish shell covering half the length of their bodies. They live as long as nine years and have female and male reproductive organs.

After mating, each snail can produce 100 to 400 eggs. Mated adults lay about 1,200 eggs a year.

The snails originate in East Africa. Officials say they have been introduced into Caribbean islands such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, and they have been detected in Saint Lucia and Barbados.

Fagan said multiple snails were found in February at one property in Hialeah, Fla. Authorities searched the nearby area, but no other snails turned up, he said.

Last year, state and federal wildlife officials began a concerted effort to prevent the spread of pythons in and around the Everglades because those invasive reptiles prey on native species.

Fagan said it's difficult to compare the dangers posed by two species. "The snakes pose a completely different threat to nature," he said. "I don't think you can compare the two."

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/14/nation/la-na-giant-snails14-2010mar14
(Submitted by D.R. Shoop)

Devotees of Fla. man say they ingested snail mucus

Mar 11, 9:03 PM EST

MIAMI (AP) -- Devotees of a man claiming to practice a traditional African religion said they had to ingest the mucus of a Giant African Snail that sickened them.

Federal authorities in January raided the Miami man's home after receiving complaints. The man has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The Giant African Snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Experts said it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and even can even eat plaster.

The man said he meant no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_SNAIL_EATING_RITUAL

Sex and the Single Snail

Study shows benefits of sexual reproduction over asexual.

By Fariss Samarrai
28 January 2010

Why have sex?

That is one of the big questions in evolutionary biology.

Sexual reproduction is a high-energy endeavor, requiring, often, the quest for a mate, the actual act of sex, and the carrying of offspring (almost always by the females).

Why not reproduce asexually? Many organisms do, though most of them are single-celled bacteria and other simple life forms. Still, some multicellular organisms also reproduce asexually, including many plants, insects, some reptiles, various mollusks and a few fishes.

This highly efficient mode of reproduction is a low-energy endeavor, requiring no search for a mate, no sexual act, and sometimes, no carrying of offspring. It also allows rapid and abundant proliferation, since all members of that population are female and able to produce offspring.

So, yes, why have sex?

The prevailing theory is that sexual reproduction, which requires two genders, allows genetic intermingling that overall is very good for both the individuals and the species as a whole.

Asexual reproduction, on the other hand, is largely static, where each offspring is genetically identical to every other. This allows for the ongoing accumulation and replication of harmful mutations and little room for adaptation to rapidly changing environments, such as the introduction or quick proliferation of a pathogen. This could, in the long run, lead to extinction of the species.

A new study, by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa, published currently in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, provides additional credence to this understanding.

“We demonstrated that sexual reproduction allows organisms to clean deleterious mutations from their genome,” said U.Va. biology professor Doug Taylor, who co-authored the study. “Asexual reproduction does indeed allow for the accumulation of deleterious mutations.”

Taylor and his colleagues at Iowa sequenced the entire mitochondrial DNA of multiple sexual and asexual lineages of a species of snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, which has sexual and asexual individuals living side-by-side in lakes in New Zealand.

They found that the sexually reproducing variety accumulates harmful mutations in DNA at about half the rate of the asexual lineage. This does not mean that mutations occur at a slower rate, but that, when mutations do occur, they are cleaned from the genome twice as fast in the sexual lineage.

“Asexual lineages suffer from the fact that they can’t clean the mutations from the genome—that’s the theory,” Taylor said. “And we found that, indeed, the sexual lineages are able to purge the genome of their deleterious mutations much more effectively than the asexual lineages.”

Taylor said the finding might be a profound demonstration, at the genetic level, for why sexual reproduction exists in the first place.

Taylor and his colleagues looked for mutations in the snails’ mitochondrial genome, in part because the mitochondrial genome is small and evolves rapidly in most animals. However, the mitochondrial genome is also where many mutations are known to affect the overall health of the full organism.

Underlying genetic disorders in the mitochondria are believed to cause many diseases affecting organisms, such as—in humans—Parkinson’s disease, premature aging, optic neuropathies and muscular degenerative disorders.

http://news.clas.virginia.edu/x16422.xml
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)

Rare species named after crocodile hunter Steve Irwin

By Jennifer Viegas Fri Nov 13 2009

Last year we told you about a turtle named after Steve Irwin. Now yet another species, described in the following Queensland Museum release, has been named after the popular television host, wildlife expert and conservationist, who died in 2006.

Queensland Museum scientist Dr John Stanisic has named a rare species of tree snail discovered in north Queensland in honor of wildlife advocate and conservationist Steve Irwin.

The snail, Crikey steveirwini, was found in the mountainous regions of north Queensland's Wet Tropics near Cairns.

(Image: Queensland Museum)

Honorary Research Fellow Dr Stanisic said that like its namesake, the Crikey steveirwini is a unique creature with some interesting qualities that set it apart from other land snails.

"This is an extremely rare species of snail," Dr Stanisic said.

"So far it has only been found in three locations, all on the summits of high mountains in far north Queensland and at altitudes above 1,000 meters which is quite unusual for Australian land snails.

"These mountainous habitats will be among the first to feel the effects of climate change and Steve Irwin's tree snail could become a focal species for monitoring this change.

"In contrast with its more drab coloured ground-dwelling relatives, Crikey steveirwini is a colorful snail, with swirling bands of creamy yellow, orange-brown and chocolate giving the shell an overall khaki appearance.

"It was the khaki color that immediately drew the connection to the late Crocodile Hunter," Dr Stanisic said.

Dr Stanisic will present a commemorative certificate to the Irwin family this Sunday 15 November as part of Steve Irwin Day celebrations at Australia Zoo. He will also talk about his discovery and have some Crikey steveirwini snail shells on hand for visitors to see.

Steve Irwin's wife Terri Irwin said Steve would have been delighted to have a new species bear both his name and his signature catch cry.

"Steve worked tirelessly to promote conservation, wildlife and the environment and his work enabled the plight of endangered species to reach a whole new audience," Ms Irwin said.

"Steve also had a long history of collaborating with staff at the Queensland Museum and I'm sure he would be pleased to know his name is continuing to highlight a rare and endangered Queensland species."

Steve Irwin was awarded the Museum's highest accolade in 2003 - the Queensland Museum Medal - for his exceptional contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Australian wildlife at an international level and his commitment and passion to conservation and the environment.

The discovery of the Crikey steveirwini was announced publicly in Dr Stanisic's paper published in the online scientific journal, Zootaxa. The full paper can be accessed at www.mapress.com/zootaxa/taxa/Mollusca.html.

Crikey steveirwini
'Steve Irwin's Tree Snail'

Species profile: Crikey steveirwini Stanisic, 2009
Etymology: In memory of the late Steve Irwin, wildlife warrior, environmental educator and Queensland Museum medallist.
Holotype: QMMO 78184, Mount Spurgeon, 7 km north, 16°22'S, 145°13'E, altitude 1250 m. Collected by G.B. Monteith, H. Janetzki, L. Roberts, 19 October 1991.
Description: Shell medium-sized, yellowish cream to creamy brown with dark chocolate-brown spiral bands of various widths, turbinate with a very high spire; whorls rounded, sutures weakly impressed; protoconch with vague radial ridges to smooth, teleoconch with weak radial growth threads and incised spiral striae; lip weakly thickened, brown; imperforate; height to 15mm.
Distribution: Central Wet Tropics (uplands), North East Queensland.
Key localities: Mt Lewis; Mt Spurgeon; Lambs Head, West of Edmonton.
Habitat and ecology: Rainforest; arboreal living on leaves on trees.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/rare-species-named-after-crocodile-hunter-steve-irwin.html

(Submitted by Dave McMann)