Four-axle winding shell

2008/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia

During the production of Malaysia's shellfish catalogue, a shell of snails was discovered, which had never been discovered. He has been called opisthostoma vermiculum. The difference with the other species of snails is its shell rolled in four independent axes.

This has surprised the researchers. They know about 100,000 species with the shelled shell and none resembles the new one. The shells of the snails they knew so far were wound up in a maximum of three axes.

When they first discovered it, they thought it would be a special being created by a mutation, but little by little they were discovering more and more and saw that they are all equal.

They have not yet explained the discovery. They do not know how shell formation is possible with this type of structures, or if that aspect contributes advantages to animals. And that is why they have to find survivors and still have not achieved it.