New Slime-Shooting Snail Found On Shipwreck
Discovered in Florida, the new species is likely an invader from the Pacific.
Scientists have discovered a new snail species that’s pretty special: It shoots slime, lives on shipwrecks, and could have major implications for coral reef restoration.
Known as the Vandy snail to its discoverers, it's named after the only place it's ever been found: The hull of the sunken USNS Vandenberg, a ship that was sunk deliberately in 2009 to create an artificial coral reef off the Florida Keys.
But the snail is a long way from home. A new study in the Journal Peer J reports that this recently discovered species, a type of worm-snail, is native to the Pacific Ocean, where it has gone unrecognized. (Also see "Newly Discovered Snails Fit in Eye of a Needle.")
Now,
