With a snail’s help a fish transitions from dying to dead
Like manna from heaven, food from above rains on the deep. Those productive shallow waters full of light, photosynthesis, and food are an extreme contrast to their dark abyssal brethren. With such...
View ArticleHow the Gastropod Got Its Twist
All snails and their ancestors, the Gastropods, share a common feature. We people with fancy Ph.D.’s in biology call this a synapomorphy, a word derived from the Greek words for “together with”, “away...
View ArticleThe masters of bling, carrier snails
Xenophorid shells from the Carvalho Shell Collection Readers of DSN may think they know my favorite organism. Did you guess the giant isopod or did you guess the giant squid? Those beasties are truly...
View ArticleSleuthing the Largest Snail
Syrinx araunus at 0.91 meters. From Hawaiian Shell News 1982 No. 7 Reason #381 that I love my job I spent this morning doing this: In the last few days I have been tracking down the world’s largest...
View ArticleThese Are A Few of My Favorite Species: Carrier Shells
Xenophora pallidula from the Comotes Sea in the Philippines. Photo and shell are from C.R. McClain. Bottom view The carrier shells of the family Xenophoridae are the most remarkable bunch of snails....
View ArticleDigital Seashells and David Raup
My love of snail shells did not begin at a young age. This is not a story of a 6-year old boy discovering his first shell on an idyllic sandy beach. The year was 1998. I was 23 and in the first...
View ArticleMalacology Monthly: It Eats Whaaaat?
Not all snails scour the ocean bottom for algae and muck, but some have more refined tastes. But taste is one thing, and having the tool to get that food is what gastropods do best. Snails have a...
View ArticleMalacology Monthly: Going Deep
Sub-Neritic Gentrification Deepwater Helmet Shell Galeodea keyteri from 650m depth off Inhaca, Mozambique; photo by D.J. Long/Deep Sea News. For November we will be doing some deep thinking about...
View ArticleCraig With Big Things (and Small Things)
I have a confession. I am obsessed with ridiculously large and small things. While other children impatiently anticipated toys for Christmas, I enjoyed just as much the miniature Christmas village my...
View ArticleThe Beauty of Rarity
Legend has it that Saint Patrick gave a four-leaf clover to a group of his followers; the fourth leaf put there by God to bring luck. St. Patrick believed the first three leaves represented hope,...
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