2mm Transparent Snail Species New to Science
Local Editor
The Lukina Jama-Trojama cave system in Croatia is one of the deepest in the world. Its tunnels penetrate nearly 1.4km (0.9 miles) into the Earth.
Yet even that far down there is life. Zospeum tholussum, a species new to science, is a tiny, blind, nearly transparent snail less than 2mm long. This specimen, just reported in Subterranean Biology, was found at a depth of 980 metres by Alexander Weigand of Goethe University Frankfurt, in Germany. Though it was the only living individual he discovered, a further eight unoccupied shells suggest Z. tholussum
ranges from a depth of 800 metres to the lake at the cave's bottom. Nor is Z.
tholussum alone. Other, differently shaped shells speak of yet more snail species in the caves-though "live captures" will be required to confirm their existence.
Source: The Economist
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