lovelysnailfacts

[lovelysnailfacts]

There are roughly 23 species of snails that are carnivorous. The meat-eating snail Powelliphantasnails will eat earthworms similar to spaghetti noodles sucked into their radula. They are also known to eat slugs! The largest species of this snail, the Powelliphanta superba prouseorum can be found in Kahruangi National Park and can measure up to 9 centimeters across! These snails are found in areas native to New Zealand. The genus was named after Dr A.W.B Powell, a former scientist at Auckland Museum who studied these snails during the 1930s and 1940s!

(https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/dead-heat/)

(https://www.cultofweird.com/nature/giant-snail-eats-earthworm/)

(https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/powelliphanta-snails/)

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By perchance the strangest species of snail is the Worm snail (Vermetidae). They are sea-snails that grow on hard surfaces cemented together in colonies! These snails resemble tube worms and can be found in Floridan waters or anywhere along the Pacific coast of North America south of Monterey! These snails interestingly have no operculum!

(Image source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/51437-Vermetidae)

(Image source: http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2013/09/worm-snail.html)

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This is the Tylomelania Gemmifera, also called a variety of names such as the Golden Rabbit snail, the Orange Rabbit snail, Orange Poso snails, and Giant Sulawesi Rabbit Snails! These gastropods are freshwater snails found in Indonesia specifically varying around Malili Lake! They are an invasive species and actually categorized as an endemic!

(Image credit: https://buceplant.com/products/orange-poso-rabbit-snail)

(Image credit: http://www.shrimptank.ca/sulawesi-orange-rabbit-snails/)

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This is a Candy Cane Snail (Liguus Virgineus). Its shell coloration is produced by pigment glands in the mantle, called chromophores, and are active for the entire life of the snail! They are native to the Caribbean and the island of Hispaniola. They live in trees! They have 200 rows of teeth! Indigenous people of Hispaniola ate these snails and have been depicted and known of since 1684!

(Image sources from https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdesoto/24659521261/sizes/z/ and https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/335470-Liguus-virgineus)

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Chrysomallon Squamiferum (Volcano Snails) are known to have sclerite as a part of a micro skeleton that is formed to provide survivability to the animal. In this case, the sclerites are the iron that coat the animals shell and that has adapted to form into their exoskeleton. Volcano snails have no eyes but their heart makes up 4% of their total body volume! The population living in the solitaire vent field have developed a white color due to the lack of iron but those in the Kairei vent field are the “traditional” volcano snails as they are black and magnetic. Those in the Longqi vent field are a brown or golden color due to the prescence of greigite and pyrite. Volcano snails, because of their habitat they have adapted to withstand the heat and pressure of both their underwater conditions and the restraints of living in volcanoes under sea level. 

Photography by Dr. Chong Chen

[lovelysnailfacts]

The shell of the Chrysomallon Squamiferum is composed of three main layers. The outer layer is thin and organic reinforced by iron sulfide (Greigite) particles that are output by the thermal vents. The iron sulfide allows for protection against crabs; while most shells would obtain one large crack from the force of a crabs claw, the iron sulfide outer shell provides a structure that produces only small cracks rather than a severely damaged shell. The middle layer is thicker and dense. It’s pliable and used to absorb the shocks of pressure from predators. The inner layer is calcified. The Chrysomallon Squamiferum has adapted to absorb the iron sulfide and become “armored” against predators and the heat!

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The Volcano snail (Chrysomallon Squamiferum) lives in vents located 1.5 to 1.8 miles below sea level! They live in three locations found in the Indian Ocean off of Madagascar on both Eastern and Southern coasts.

Discovered in 2001 in the Kairei vent field, then in the Solitaire vent field (which is 700 km North of the Kairei), then the Longqi (2,300 km Southwest of the Kairei vent).

These snails can live in heats of up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (398.889 degrees Celsius)

(Image Credit: Map of Indian Ocean Ridges, showing the locations of the four hydrothermal vent fields)

Chrysomallon Squamiferum photograph taken by  Dr. Chong Chen

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The Janthina Janthina snail (Violet sea snail) is blind! When they feel threatened, similar to species like Octopi, they secrete a dark blue or purple ink. These snails at only a maximum length of three centimeters will eat jellyfish! Unlike most snails, that are simply hermaphrodites, these snails are born with male reproductive organs and upon reaching maturity become female, losing their male organs!

(Image credit: Australian Geographic)

[lovelysnailfacts]

Snails are born with their shell, soft and malleable. As they eat calcium their shell hardens!

The Violet Sea Snail (Janthina Janthina) is a species of holoplanktonic sea snail! They're found in warm tropical waters and they float on the surface of he ocean on a secreted "raft" of mucus bubbles.

These snails have soft pliable shells as they do not gain calcium from their diet!

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Snails can lay over 100 eggs in one clutch! Usually one 20 to 50 of these eggs will successfully hatch and reach maturity however. And, out of those snails, those who reproduce successfully, about 1/3 of them will die directly after laying eggs.

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To find the age of a snail, much like trees, one can count the coils of their shell!

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It would take the average snail approximately 33.33 hours to reach one mile traveled

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The smallest snail in the world was discovered in China in 2015! It was discovered in Guangxi and is called the Angustopila Dominikae. it's small enough to fit on the eye of a needle! Upon discovering it, scientist Barna Páll-Gergley and he named it after his wife (Dominika)!.

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The oldest fully preserved snail dates back to living ~99 million years ago! It was recovered in Myanmar in 2018. This snail was recovered by Dr. Adrienne Jochum!

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Common Garden Snails can have around 14,000 teeth in their radula. However, some species can have up to 20,000 and some, like the limpet sea snail (Patella vulgata) have teeth that are five times stronger than spider silk making it the strongest natural material on Earth!