Papua New Guinea might account for less than 1 percent of Earth ’s terra firma area , but what it miss in size , it more than makes up for in biodiversity . The latest find to be made in its remote woodland comes in the human body of nine new species of land snail with a small sizing but a big bite .
Despite therichnessof Papua New Guinea ’s forests , aboriginal land snails have gone relatively unsampled there . “ We do n’t sleep together everything that ’s out there , ” said John Slapcinsky , lead author of a sketch describing the new metal money , in astatement .
“ Most people may not realise how poorly known most of the invertebrates are , even though 95 to 99 percent of all brute are invertebrate . you’re able to go to a berth , look around for a few months and find all sorts of things that have n’t been discover before . ”
The shell of one of the newly discoveredTorresiropaspecies.Image credit: Florida Museum photo by Jeff Gage (CC BY)
And that ’s exactly what Slapcinsky and colleagues did . Over the track of nine trips between 2002 and 2012 , each hold out a month , the researchers travel on foot over steep lot into the remote forests . There , they combed through soil and fallen leaves , collecting over 19,000 snails from more than 200 sites .
Of those sample , nine unexampled mintage come forth , all with tightly loop , dark-brown or tan shell ; some even had Au , flamelike bands . They all go to the genusTorresiropa , part of the across-the-board sept of Rhytididae , and like their relatives , possess obelisk - mould tooth . Whilst the researchers did n’t observe them eating , the compounding of the shape of their teeth and the fact other members of Rhytididae arecarnivoroussuggests that the new species are also raiding .
The new species ofTorresiropaalso happen to be fairly tiny despite their potential carnivorous nature – all nine of them could fit together on a nickel . This made finding them in amongst the dense forest all the more telling , peculiarly consider they ’re also cross about where they live ; many could only be found on a single island or mountain .
At present tense , there is n’t enough data to make an accurate or reliable assessment of the preservation position of the Modern escargot species , though the research worker have made some speculation . “ These new species of snails were found in areas that still have native vegetation and still seem to be doing well , but they could well become endangered if thing change , ” tell Slapcinsky .
body politic snails already report foraround 40 percentof memorialise extinctions since the 1500s and Papua New Guinea ’s forests present an attractive chance for loggers , which could put the raw specie at risk of infection . “ When these habitats are threatened , snails are often out of portion , since they ca n’t go anywhere , ” Slapcinsky explain .
Whether deforestation becomes a scourge to the diminutive meat - eating mollusc is yet to be seen , but their find remains an important glimpse into the wonder that can be found in our major planet ’s untouched ecosystem .
The study is put out inArchiv für Molluskenkunde .
