4 ms·

Snails Cross Vast Oceans

55 points by dnetesn 4y ago

loloquwowndueo 4y ago
They hitch a ride on a whale’s tail of course. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snail_and_the_Whale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snail_and_the_Whale (Of course I’m just kidding but it’s a great book)
- john2x 4y ago
  This and the author's other books are really great. There's CGI animation for some of them too and they are really well done. My family are huge fans.
andsoitis 4y ago
beating rabbits again
- _8j50 4y ago
  What?
NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
Domain name checks out
baerrie 4y ago
“Biogeographically, snails are plants” I love this
londons_explore 4y ago
It is not unusual for an entire tree to end up floating in the ocean. Some of the branches will end up dry above the water, and in a big tree might take months for the leaves to die. Those branches can be a home for all kinds of creatures. Across the whole world, and millions of years, almost every small creature will get to every continent this way. The reason many creatures haven't yet spread like this is that many creatures have a minimum viable population in the tens or hundreds of individuals.
pvaldes 4y ago
Is a nice experiment but 14 days at sea is to low. They should be able to survive for much more time than this. Tropical and Mediterranean Snails evolved to endure a dry season and in the same conditions of lack of water and scorching sun will look for a high ground exposed to cooling winds, hide under an emerged branch with a lot of colleagues, produce an epiphragm to seal themselves to the branch and then aestivate for several months. For snails crossing the sea is "space travel" level, and would attack the problem in the same way as human astronauts. The best strategy is entering in an hibernation phase and sleep the entire voyage. As they travel in groups would mate soon after reaching a new land.
themanmaran 4y ago
I can't help but think this is partially inspired by the "Get 10MM but you have to avoid the snail for the rest of your life" meme [1]. The common answer is always to spend a year in the US and a year in East Asia so the Snail is always stuck trying to cross the pacific. So it's nice to know fears were founded and snails can in fact cross the ocean. 1. https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/11/03/for-love-of-the-immortal-snail/ https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/11/03/for-love-of-the-imm...

55 points by dnetesn 4y ago

They hitch a ride on a whale’s tail of course. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snail_and_the_Whale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snail_and_the_Whale (Of course I’m just kidding but it’s a great book)

john2x 4y ago
This and the author's other books are really great. There's CGI animation for some of them too and they are really well done. My family are huge fans.

andsoitis 4y ago

beating rabbits again

_8j50 4y ago
What?

NoZebra120vClip 4y ago

Domain name checks out

baerrie 4y ago

“Biogeographically, snails are plants” I love this

londons_explore 4y ago

It is not unusual for an entire tree to end up floating in the ocean. Some of the branches will end up dry above the water, and in a big tree might take months for the leaves to die. Those branches can be a home for all kinds of creatures. Across the whole world, and millions of years, almost every small creature will get to every continent this way. The reason many creatures haven't yet spread like this is that many creatures have a minimum viable population in the tens or hundreds of individuals.

pvaldes 4y ago

Is a nice experiment but 14 days at sea is to low. They should be able to survive for much more time than this. Tropical and Mediterranean Snails evolved to endure a dry season and in the same conditions of lack of water and scorching sun will look for a high ground exposed to cooling winds, hide under an emerged branch with a lot of colleagues, produce an epiphragm to seal themselves to the branch and then aestivate for several months. For snails crossing the sea is "space travel" level, and would attack the problem in the same way as human astronauts. The best strategy is entering in an hibernation phase and sleep the entire voyage. As they travel in groups would mate soon after reaching a new land.

themanmaran 4y ago

I can't help but think this is partially inspired by the "Get 10MM but you have to avoid the snail for the rest of your life" meme [1]. The common answer is always to spend a year in the US and a year in East Asia so the Snail is always stuck trying to cross the pacific. So it's nice to know fears were founded and snails can in fact cross the ocean. 1. https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/11/03/for-love-of-the-immortal-snail/ https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/11/03/for-love-of-the-imm...