Spiderman' worm-snails discovered on Florida shipwreck

[Judi Lynn]

New species could have major implications for coral reef restoration
Date:
April 5, 2017
Source:
Field Museum





What's brightly colored, lives on shipwrecks, filter-feeds like a whale, and shoots webs like Spiderman? If you can't readily come up with an answer, that's okay: until now, such animals weren't known to science. But as of today, scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of snail that ticks all those boxes. According to its discoverer, the snail shows "amazing adaptations and are kind of cute," and it could play an important role in coral reef restoration work.

"These worm-snails are particularly weird animals," says Dr. Rüdiger Bieler, Curator of Invertebrates at Chicago's Field Museum and the lead author of a paper in the journal PeerJ describing the new snails. "And while we find lots of unusual snails, this one could have a substantial impact on coral reef restoration efforts."

Instead of having coiled shells like most snails, worm-snails have irregularly-shaped tubular shells that they cement onto a hard surface. And while most snails are slow movers, adult worm-snails don't move at all -- instead, they stick to one spot for the rest of their lives. That makes them good candidates to live on hard surfaces like ships and coral reefs. The new species, Thylacodes vandyensis, is named for the "Vandy," the nickname the SCUBA diving community has given to the USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenburg, a retired naval vessel intentionally sunk to serve as an artificial reef in the lower Florida Keys. This ship is the only place the new worm-snails have ever been found, glued to the vessel's hull.

"I first got interested in these guys when I saw their giant slime glands," says Bieler. "Normally, snails produce a trail of slime so that they can glide on it in order to move. But worm-snails are stationary -- what did they need slime glands for?"

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170405084025.htm

[luvMIdog]

1. caught in snail snot- a bad way to go :P