An international team of researchers has discovered a hairy snail in a piece of amber that is 99 million years old. The shell of the new land snail species has short, bristly hairs arranged at the edge, as reported Tuesday by the Senckenberg Research Institute and the Natural History Museum in Frankfurt am Main.
Apparently she gave the mollusks an evolutionary advantage. The newly described fossil snail comes from a chalky amber mine in Myanmar. A total of eight species of the so-called tower snail family have been recovered in Burmese amber – six of them have bristly shells.
The fine hairs (pictured below) on the shell of the newly discovered species are only 150 to 200 micrometers long. According to the researchers, the decoration of fossil and contemporary land snail shells with ribs, hairs, tubercles or folds is not uncommon — their formation is nevertheless complex and usually not without purpose.
For example, the hair could help the animals to anchor themselves better to a plant stem or leaves. They may also be responsible for the thermoregulation of the snail or they protected the snail shell from decay in the highly acidic soil and leaf litter of the ancient tropical forest floor.
Were the bristles for camouflage?
The bristles may also have been used for camouflage or to protect the snail, which belongs to the snail family, from direct attack. Finally, the scientists do not rule out that the hair was an advantage in sexual selection.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
