An undersea closeup of the lime-colored Margarita Snail of the Belizean reef, Cayo galbinus (brand-new types). The 2 black dots are the eyes. Credit: R. Bieler
The marine snails’ intense citrus coloring may assist fend off predators.
The “Margaritaville” in Jimmy Buffett’s well-known tune isn’t a genuine location, however it’s long been connected with the FloridaKeys This string of tropical islands is home to the just living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, together with numerous animals discovered no place else on the planet. One of them is a newly-discovered, intense yellow snail, called in honor ofMargaritaville The lemon- (or, key-lime-) colored snail, together with its lime-green cousin from Belize, is the topic of a research study released in the journal PeerJ.
A Closer Look at Worm Snails
These marine snails are remote family members of the land-dwelling gastropods you may discover leaving slimy tracks in your garden. Nicknamed “worm snails,” they invest the majority of their lives in one location.
“I find them particularly cool because they are related to regular free-living snails, but when the juveniles find a suitable spot to live, they hunker down, cement their shell to the substrate, and never move again,” states Rüdiger Bieler, manager of < period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>invertebrates</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Invertebrates are animals that do not have a backbone. They make up the majority of the animal kingdom and include animals such as insects, worms, mollusks, and arachnids. Invertebrates are found in almost every habitat on Earth, from the depths of the oceans to the highest mountains. They play important roles in the ecosystem as decomposers, pollinators, and as a food source for other animals. Invertebrates have a wide range of body shapes, sizes, and behaviors, and they have evolved a variety of ways to survive and thrive in their environments.</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" > invertebrates at theFieldMuseum inChicago and the research study’s lead author.“Their shell continues to grow as an irregular tube around the snail’s body, and the animal hunts by laying out a mucus web to trap plankton and bits of detritus.”
An undersea closeup of theKeysMargaritaSnail,Cayo margarita(*********** )( brand-new types )in the reef of theFloridaKeys(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** )the 2 long arms, utilized by the snail to spread out the mucous web for feeding. Credit: R. Bieler
Bieler has actually invested the previous 4 years studying invertebrate animals residing in the Western Atlantic, however these specific snails “are so small and so well-hidden that we’ve not encountered them before during our scuba diving surveys. We had to look very closely,” he states. The brand-new < period class =(************************************************************************************ )aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>species</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" > types comes from the very same household of marine snails as the intrusive“Spider-Man” snail that the very same group explained from theVandenberg shipwreck off theFloridaKeys in2017
Discoveries inColor andGenetics
He and his associates, consisting of fellowFieldMuseum managerPetraSierwald, stumbled upon the lemon-yellow snails in theFlorida KeysNationalMarineSanctuary, and they discovered a comparable, lime-colored snail inBelize“Many snails are polychromatic– within the same species, you get different colors,” statesBieler“In a single population, even a single little cluster, one might be orange, one might be gray. I think they do it to confuse fish and not give them a clear target, and some have warning coloration.”
“Initially, when I saw the lime-green one and the lemon-yellow one, I figured they were the same species,” statesBieler”But when we sequenced their < period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>DNA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" > DNA, they were really various.”
Look carefully: aMargaritaSnail in the middle of a dead area of a big brain coral.Credit: R.Bieler
Based on these molecular information,Bieler,Sierwald, and their co-authorsTimothyCollins, RosemaryGolding, CamilaGranados -Cifuentes,John Healy, andTimothyRawlings, put the snails in a brand-new genus,Cayo, after theSpanish word for a little, low island.The yellow snail was calledCayo margarita after the citrusy beverages inJimmy Buffet’s“Margaritaville.”The lime snail’s name,Cayo galbinus, indicates“greenish-yellow.”
SimilarTraits and(******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* )Importance
TheCayo snails have a crucial characteristic in typical with another worm snail genus,(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** )(*********** )for which the group explained a brand-new types fromBermuda and calledThylacodes bermudensisWhile just distantly associated, these snails all have actually brilliantly colored heads poking out of their tubular shells.“Our thought is this is a warning color,” states(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* ). “They have some nasty metabolites in their mucus. That also might help explain why they’re able to have exposed heads– on the reef, everybody is out to eat you, and if you don’t have any defensive mechanism, you will be overgrown by the corals and sea anemones and all the stuff around you. It seems like the mucus might help deter the neighbors from getting too close.”
Bieler states that the research study is essential since it assists brighten the biodiversity of reef, which are under serious danger due to environment modification.“There have been increases in global water temperatures, and some species can handle them much better than others,” statesBielerTheCayo snails tend to reside on pieces of dead coral, and as more coral is exterminated, the snails may spread out.
(*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** )states Bieler,“it’s another indication that right under our noses, we have undescribed species. This is in snorkeling depth in a heavily touristed area, and we’re still finding new things all around us.”
Reference:“Replacing mechanical protection with colorful faces–twice: parallel evolution of the non-operculate marine worm-snail genera Thylacodes (Guettard, 1770) and Cayo n. gen. (Gastropoda: Vermetidae)” by RüdigerBieler, Timothy M.Collins,RosemaryGolding,CamilaGranados-Cifuentes,John M.Healy,Timothy A.Rawlings andPetraSierwald, 9October2023, PeerJ
DOI:107717/ peerj.15854
This research study was added to by researchers at theField Museum,Florida International University,QueenslandMuseum, and CapeBretonUniversity
