Snail's DNA secrets unlocked in fight against river disease

By Helen Briggs BBC News

16 May 2017

Scientists have decoded the genome of a snail involved in the spread of a deadly parasitic disease.

They say the information will help in the fight against schistosomiasis, an infection caused by a parasitic worm that lives in streams and ponds.

The disease affects millions of people a year in sub-tropical and tropical regions.

More than 100 researchers from around the world have unlocked the DNA secrets of a snail that transmits the parasite.

They say it will help in the understanding of the snail's biology, including new ways to stop the parasite spreading to people.

"Having the knowledge means we can progress at a much faster pace at understanding the disease and reducing the number of people infected," said Dr Joanna Bridger of the University of Brunel, a co-researcher on the study.

The snail (Biomphalaria glabrata) is found in South America. 

Related snails are responsible for transmitting the parasite in sub-Saharan Africa, where most cases occur.

People become infected when larval forms of the parasite - released by freshwater snails - penetrate the skin in contaminated water.

In the body, the larvae develop into adult worms, which live in the blood vessels and release eggs. 

Some of the eggs are passed out of the body to continue the parasite's lifecycle. 

Others become trapped in body tissues, causing damage to organs.

Continued  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39928036

Tiniest Snail Ever Found Could Fit Through Needle's Eye 10 Times

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | September 28, 2015 02:36pm ET

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Who knows? But 10 Angustopila dominikae snails can fit within the eye of a needle. 

The newly discovered snail species, found in China, may be the world's smallest land snail. The height of its shell is only 0.03 inches (0.86 millimeters), making it a mere crumb of a creature. 

The tiny snails are part of a group called microgastropods, which are snails shorter than 0.2 inches (0.5 mm). This is a large group, according to Barna Páll-Gergely of Shinshu University in Japan and colleagues, who wrote in 2014 in the journal ZooKeys that snails this small account for most of the diversity in tropical land snails. Previous microsnails discovered by the researchers measured just a millimeter or so (0.04 inches) in shell height; they've also discovered a snail less than 0.08 inches (2 mm) in height that lives, as far as anyone knows, only in one cave in South Korea.

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Woman finds live snail in supermarket sandwich

Hannah Scott discovers crunchy creature as she tucks into chicken tikka and mango chutney sandwich from Tesco Extra store in Grimsby

By Agency

1:37PM BST 12 May 2015

A woman narrowly avoided eating a live snail that she found in her supermarket sandwich.

 Photo: Caters

Hannah Scott discovered the crunchy creature as she was tucking into a chicken tikka and mango chutney sandwich, from a Tesco Extra store.

Mrs Scott, from Stallingborough, Lincolnshire, was offered £25 in compensation by the supermarket giant, which has launched an investigation.

The 37-year-old said the incident has made her think twice about even stepping foot in the shop, in Grimsby, again.

"I took a bite out of my sandwich and felt something hard and I thought that's not right, so I spat it out, not knowing what it was," she said.

"I just stared at the snail, wondering if it was dead or alive. When it started moving I thought right that's it, I need to get this sorted. I've not bought a sandwich since."

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Snail named for cement company that could make it extinct

January 6, 2015

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

For the first time ever, a newly-discovered species has been named after a corporation that could decide whether or not it becomes extinct.

Call it eco-blackmail or savvy conservationism, the naming of the recently-found Charopa lafargei snail is a direct attempt to save it, as concrete conglomerate LaFarge is currently in the middle of excavating the limestone hill that could be its sole habitat on Earth.

Located in Peninsular Malaysia, the limestone hill is slowly being converted into a quarry by LaFarge, which harvests the stone as a raw material for cement production. The land set aside for the quarry has also recently yielded other new species – including another snail, three plants, a trapdoor spider and a new type of bent-toed gecko.

Generally speaking, the process of naming a new species isn’t driven by whimsy. First the unique organism has to be described and revealed to be currently unknown to science. The candidate is then designated with a new two-part name, typically based in Latin or Greek. Like a person’s family or last name, the first part of the new species’ name is the smallest group it’s mostly closely related to – the genus in scientific nomenclature. The second part is unique to the organism.

The second part of species names are often selected to celebrate a person who played a role in its discovery, for instance the biologist who first discovered it or a sponsor who funded the discoverer’s work. However, in the case of Charopa lafargei the name was chosen somewhat ironically as the company could cause the snail’s extinction.

“We name this species Charopa lafargei after Lafarge whose declared goals for biodiversity include minimising and avoiding damage to important habitats, minimising and avoiding species mortality and stress, and minimising and reversing habitat fragmentation,” the team responsible for the snail’s naming recently wrote in a report published by the journal Basteria.

Read more at

A tiny, rare snail in Malaysia has big consequences for global cement giant

A new species of snail is believed only to exist in a limestone quarry mined by cements giant Lafarge, Tony Juniper challenges the company to protect it from extinction

Tony Juniper

Guardian Professional, Monday 25 August 2014 07.00 BST

For the first time ever, a ‘new’ species has been named after the company that has the power to either conserve or destroy it. It’s a snail and, although small, has the potential to leave a permanent legacy for a giant global business.

The snail in question was recently discovered living on an isolated limestone hill called Gunung Kanthan in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia – its only known home on Earth. Many species with tiny geographical ranges are at particular risk of extinction, but this one more so than many as the only place it has ever been found is in the corner of a limestone quarry run by global cement and aggregates giant Lafarge.

The quarry, or at least those parts of it that have yet to be blown apart to provide material for cement manufacture, has proven a remarkably fertile place for new species. It has recently been the source of three new kinds of plant, a trapdoor spider, another snail and new kind of Bent-toed Gecko. Given the very restricted known distributions of these species, all of them are presumed to be at critical risk of global extinction, and all face threat from further quarrying.

read on ...

Beautiful New Snail Discovered Deep Underground

A new snail species with a beautifully translucent shell was recently discovered more than 3,000 feet (914 meters) underground in a Croatian cave.

A team of cavers and biologists with the Croatian Biospeleological Society discovered Zospeum tholussum in the Lukina Jama-Trojama cave systems of western Croatia — one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world — on an expedition to determine the cave's depth. The team collected all animal specimens found along the way, since deep cave crevices are often promising places to find new species, and happened upon one live sample of the new snail, along with two empty shells. 

The team presented the elegant snail to taxonomist Alexander Weigand at Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany, for help in identification. Weigand determined that this particular species had never before been found, but that it is related to other known species.

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Rare tiny snail found at second site on Black Isle

A rare snail the size of a grain of rice has been found at protected woodland on the Black Isle in the Highlands.

Pupilla pratensis has only been recorded in one other site in Britain, also on the Black Isle, and is usually found in Scandinavia and Poland.

It measures 4mm long by about 1.5mm wide.

The discovery at Braelangwell Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest was made last summer by specialist Ian Killeen.

Scottish Natural Heritage, which has made public the find, regularly monitors habitats in the area.

Mr Killeen said: "I was very pleased with what I found.

"Not only was the habitat for the snails - calcium-rich wetland - in excellent condition, but there were also very high densities of the two main species for which the site is designated - Geyer's whorl snail and the round-mouthed whorl snail - at up to 384 per square metre in the central part of the site.

"Then we had the added bonus of this new record."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-23957323

A new species on every mountain - Extraordinary evolution in Thailand

Tiny colourful snails are in danger of extinction with vanishing limestone ecosystems

April 2013. Three new species from the genus Perrottetia were described from north and north-eastern Thailand. The species show extraordinary endemism, with each of these colourful snails occurring as "One Hill One Species". This is a very peculiar phenomenon where each one of these highly endemic snails is specific and the only one inhabiting a certain mountain range. They live in rock crevices, feeding on even smaller snails, insect larvae and some earthworms species. These beautiful animals are now at risk from extinction with the destruction of limestone ecosystems. 

Perrottetia aquilonaria, one of the newly 

described species. Credit: Somsak Panha 

Limestone ecosystems in the world are now being destroyed at an alarming rate. This means we are losing biodiversity resources, a tendency especially threatening for the hot spot areas like Thailand. The new research findings show that key terrestrial invertebrates, such as several new bright carnivorous land snails are still persisting in such areas and are being described even from the highly endangered quarried sites. This demonstrates that there are still remnants of some fundamental ecosystem, which lives and is struggling for survival, a great experience for mankind to learn. 

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/thailand-snail.html