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Now rub it into your face. It’s good for your skin! And tremendously popular in South Korea:
‘Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Cream’ contains 70 percent snail extract, and the company says it pays great attention the quality of that 70 percent.
The snails, the same kind that can be found on menus in French restaurants, are fed red ginseng while being raised in Korea in order to ensure quality slime. [...]
The snail cream, made from 21-percent snail extract, is currently the company’s best-selling product.
“I had severe adult acne,” says fan Mina Oh, 26, who began using snail cream last winter when her boss introduced her to the product.
Oh says that the snail cream is so sticky she has to slap it onto her face with a spoon. That doesn’t bother her at all.
“I could feel my skin getting much better,” she says. She plans to continue using snail-based creams.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Silver_sh
A new study has found that around 15% of all snails eaten by hungry birds survive the ordeal and live to be eaten another day. In fact, one of the snails in the study immediately gave birth right after she crawled out of the bird’s waste.
The population of giant carnivorous hermaphrodite snails (formally, Powelliphanta) is on the rise in New Zealand, and that’s a good thing. Six years ago, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) found 51 live specimens in Hawke’s Bay. Recently, a new survey team spotted 75 live Powelliphanta.
“Powelliphanta are one of our most amazing native invertebrates,” DOC ranger Mark Melville told The Dominion Post. “They are carnivores, giants of the snail world. They can live up to 20 years and they lay eggs that look like small birds’ eggs.”
The snails dwell on damp forest floors and forage for food at night. They mainly prey on earthworms but are also known to eat slugs, using a row of sharp, backward-facing teeth to grab their prey before devouring it using digestive enzymes.
Like some other land and freshwater snail species, powelliphanta snails are hermaphrodites. This means that any adult can mate with any other adult because both female and male sexual organs are present in each snail.
The species has been victim to endangered habitat and natural enemies, but the conservation efforts in areas like Hawke’s Bay are proving beneficial.
Link | Image: Flickr User JK and Rocky, CC License
YouTube user knitalatte filmed two snails playing soccer in 2008. The fast-paced, high-scoring action is absolutely riveting.
via Ace of Spades HQ
Crysomallon squamiferum, also known as the scaly-foot gastropod, was discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean in 1999 at a depth of 2420 metres. Its shell is remarkably strong because it is flexible, allowing it to absorb blows from predators and dissipate their energy, rather than shatter:
For example, the shell’s outermost layer consists of strong particles of iron sulphide created in the hydrothermal vents, each around 20 nanometres across, embedded in a soft organic matrix secreted by the snail. This structure is designed to crack when hit, but in a way that absorbs energy.
Cracks spread only by fanning out around the iron sulphide particles. This “microcracking” not only absorbs energy, it also ensures that larger cracks do not form. What’s more, the particles of iron sulphide may blunt and deform intruding claws, the study suggests.
Scientists who have studied the creature suggest that it might be possible to duplicate the structure synthetically for armor or pipelines.
Link via Popular Science | Photo: JAMSTEC
(image credit: Flickr user tillwe)
If your snails are getting too cold this winter, just get them a cute little sweater like this guy has. I can’t begin to say how strangely cute I think this is.
Link Via Cute Overload
