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Post by pinkunicorn on Nov 28, 2012 10:42:59 GMT
Does anyone keep any semi-slugs as pets? Or gastropods still classified as snails but that cannot withdraw into the shell? I was just reading about a native species, classified as a snail but technically a slug. Semilimax kotulae.  This Alpine (though present in southern Netherlands) little sluggy is apparently on the red list and not doing too well, so I'm thinking of conservation breeding, in case I manage to find a pair. There's a ton of others that are on their way to slugdom, but I've not heard of others present where I live. Would be interesting to know more species, and how they do in captivity |
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Post by pinkunicorn on Nov 28, 2012 16:25:38 GMT
 These guys here are a nice example of how the de-shelling happens. You see the mantle flap gradually climbing over the shell. Funfact I didn't know there's apparently twice as many species of semi-slugs than full slugs! And that's excluding vestigial shell species. |
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Post by jembolina on Dec 1, 2012 5:08:27 GMT
They're so bizarre!
I only learnt that semi-slugs existed when somebody mentioned them in a thread here a few days ago. It may have been you, actually!
I like those bottom two, they look like they have snail-like skin.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 2, 2012 12:54:09 GMT
With the recent news about Arctic sea water acidification eating away the tiny sea snails' shells, it looks like we might see some sluggification (I just coined this term for this context; it means the evolutionary progress of a gastropod losing its shell, but "slugify" is also a term used to convert web page headers into identifiers in web addresses, or URLs) in those areas. A calcium shell is not a good protection in acidic water, but a mantle flap made of skin is.
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Post by jembolina on Dec 3, 2012 1:52:37 GMT
I doubt they'd have time to evolve, they'll probably just be wiped out causing an overabundance of all the things they eat  |
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 3, 2012 8:15:54 GMT
Not all of them, but the species already on this evolutionary tract will gain more living space, filling the ecological "box" of the shelled species that are dying out. Of course the species need to be "competing" right now so they eat the same diet etc for them to fill the same box. And the individuals more sluggy than snaily right now will probably have more surviving offspring thanks to the acid which further expands their numbers.
Of course there's other species than snails going to take over as well, competing with the slugs, but I'm thinking of the gastropod population now. These are plankton species anyway, so their total collapse would mean the animals higher up on the food chain suffering. Even slugs can't make it if there's other pollutants at play.
But I'm pretty confident on the molluscan line's ability to adapt.They were here before dinosaurs and they still occupy the planet wherever life can exist! It does make me think how much acidification of forests plays part in slug evolution in general...
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