snails

I am always cautious when I walk around in NUS on a rainy day. My foot will halt in motion and stop applying pressure the moment it felt a unevenness not characteristic of the tiled pavement. There was once when I was leaving science library on a rainy night and I froze. Ahead of me was like a mine field of snails! They were everywhere. I navigated my way along the corridor and accidentally killed one which was hiding at the blind spot of a flight of steps.

All these led me to question the evolutionary success of snails. Firstly, they are nearly at the bottom of the food chain. Secondly, their fragile shells are a useless defense against birds. I have seen on national geographic how birds just drops snails from high grounds to crack their shells. So how did they managed to survive this long? Do they have some reproductive trick or mating success which repopulate them faster than they are being killed off? So I went to check out snail's world.com.

So if you are interested to find out more like me. read on.

"Snails are considered to be hermaphrodites. This means that every snail will have both male and female reproductive organs.

The mating practices of snails is one that allows for new snails to be brought into the dirt and water at a consistent rate. Snails will go through a complete mating ritual with each other, usually which will communicate to the other snail for an average of two to twelve hours. At the end of this ritual, the pair will fertilize the eggs in the other. It is known that a snail can carry up to 100 eggs at a time.

When the eggs are fertilized, they will go through a process of growth inside the snail. This begins with the fertilization moving the snails into a specific amount of development inside the embryo. This takes place with the snails laying eggs and burying them into a cool place in order to develop. For land snails, they will be buried underneath the dirt in order to be cared for. With marine snails, the eggs will be placed next to a solid area, such as a rock. This will allow the eggs to stay in the same place and develop without being harmed.

It will typically take a snail egg two to four weeks in order to develop. As soon as they hatch, they will immediately move into a survival mode. This is because their shells will still be in a weak form. Their reaction is to find calcium as soon as they hatch by either eating their own egg or eating other eggs in order to get the extra nutrients. It will take around three months for the snails to completely form. While this takes place, they will stay in a nest that has been built for them, with the transformations being seen through a change in color, from a clear color into a blue then into the adult form that is representative of the species. After the snails are completely developed, they will detach from their parents and move into a different shell.

The mating procedures of snails is one that moves through a specific process that helps the species to grow and survive in their respectable areas. From the beginnings of sexual maturity to finding the rate mate to the hatching of the eggs, is a specific way in which the snails are able to move into a world of growing a larger snail family."

So i conclude that this does not help explain why snails enjoy the evolutionary success in natural selection until today. haha. 白费唇舌。