Critically Endangered
Around the World in 80 Days - Day 43
We are sailing off toward the United States now. These snails are only known from a single vent in the Okinawa Trough, about 2/3 of a mile deep. They are the only species in their genus that has a fairly transparent shell. Other than that I know that they have a "thin smooth shell" and that they are very tiny. Beyond that, I could find nothing about them. I did see some pictures of inhabited shells, but the snail was not out of the shell (possibly dead?).
None of the information I found had any description of the snail itself, just what I've already said about their shells. That just means I needed to paint them this way even though I think snail faces are adorable. They are not anywhere near this big. One thing I read said something about 2mm or 0.08in, but the pictures I saw made them appear to be more along the lines of 6mm long which is not quite a quarter of an inch. I thought about painting it life sized, but then what I saw about them made that not possible either because I did not want to end up with a snail I was claiming was life sized but would actually dwarf the real snail if placed beside it. I find this a fairly interesting way to look at the snail though, and am happy with it. I tried to find what the rest of the genus looked like, but could not find many pictures that I was sure were from the genus Pravanna at all, and none showing the faces. I'm sure they are out there, but I'm not confident enough with any of the pictures I saw to be able to wing it and make assumptions about this snail's looks.
Comments