What the shell: scientists marvel as New Zealand snail lays egg from neck
Small populations of the Mount Augustus snail have been re-established in the New Zealand wild. PHOTO: AFP
What the shell: scientists marvel as New Zealand snail lays egg from neck
SYDNEY - A rare New Zealand snail has been filmed for the first time squeezing an egg from its neck, delighting scientists trying to save the critically endangered meat-eating mollusc.
Threatened by coal mining in New Zealand's South Island, a small population of the Mount Augustus snail was transplanted from its forest habitat almost 20 years ago to live in chilled containers tended by humans.
Little is known about the reproduction of the shell-bound critters, which can grow so large that New Zealand's conservation department calls them 'giants of the snail world'.
A conservation ranger said she was gobsmacked to witness a captive snail laying an egg from its neck – a reproductive act well documented in other land snails but never filmed for this species.
'It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg,' conservation ranger Lisa Flanagan said this week.
'We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail.'
Conservation department scientist Kath Walker said hard shells made it difficult to mate – so some snails instead evolved a special 'genital pore' under their head.
The Mount Augustus snail 'only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business,' she said.
The long-lived snails can grow to the size of a golf ball and their eggs can take more than a year to hatch.
They eat earthworms, according to New Zealand's conservation department, which they slurp up 'like we eat spaghetti'.
Conservation efforts suffered a drastic setback in 2011, when a faulty temperature gauge froze 800 Mount Augustus snails to death inside their climate-controlled containers.
Fewer than 2,000 snails currently live in captivity, while small populations have been re-established in the New Zealand wild. AFP
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
21 hours ago
- Straits Times
Man who let snakes bite him 200 times spurs new antivenom hope
Mr Tim Friede, 57, who has exposed himself to snake venom hundreds of times with an aim to build up immunity, poses with a water cobra. PHOTO: AFP Man who let snakes bite him 200 times spurs new antivenom hope PARIS - Mr Tim Friede was feeling particularly down on the day after the Sept 11 attacks, so he went to his basement and let two of the world's deadliest snakes bite him. Four days later, he woke up from a coma. 'I know what it feels like to die from snakebite,' Mr Friede told AFP via video call from his home in the small US town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. This experience might put most people off snakes entirely, but Mr Friede simply vowed to be more careful next time. From 2000 to 2018, he allowed himself to be bitten by snakes more than 200 times. He also injected himself with their venom over 650 times. Mr Friede endured this pain because he wanted to achieve total immunity to venom, a practice called mithridatism which should not be tried at home. After a couple of years, Mr Friede started to believe he could be the basis for a better kind of antivenom. The former truck mechanic, who does not have a university degree, long struggled to be taken seriously by scientists. But in May , a study published in the prestigious Cell journal showed that antibodies from his blood protect against a range of snake venom. The researchers now hope Mr Friede's hyper-immunity could even lead to the development of a universal antivenom. This would fill a major need, because currently most antivenoms only cover one or a few of the world's 600 venomous snakes. Up to 138,000 people are killed by snakebites a year, while 400,000 suffer amputations or other disabilities, according to the World Health Organisation. These figures are believed to be vastly underestimated because snakebite victims typically live in poorer, remote areas. 'Pain every time' Mr Friede's first bite was from a harmless garter snake when he was five years old. 'I was afraid, I cried, I ran away,' said Mr Friede, now 57. Then he started bringing snakes home and hiding them in pickle jars. His mother sought counselling, but his interest in snakes persisted. Things escalated after Mr Friede attended a class that taught him how to 'milk' snakes for their venom. How antivenom is made has changed little over the last 125 years. Small doses of snake venom are injected into animals such as horses, which produce antibodies that can be extracted and used as antivenom. Researchers hope Mr Friede's hyper-immunity could even lead to the development of a universal antivenom. PHOTO: AFP However, this antivenom usually only works for bites from that particular species of snake – and it includes other antibodies from horses that can cause serious side-effects including anaphylactic shock. 'I thought, well, if they make antivenom in horses, why can't I just use myself as a primate?' Mr Friede said. He started working through the venom from all the deadly species he could get his hands on, such as cobras, taipans, black mambas and rattlesnakes. 'There is pain every time,' he said. 'Proud' For years, the scientists he contacted to take advantage of his immunity refused to bite. Then in 2017, immunologist Jacob Glanville, who previously worked on universal vaccines, turned his attention towards antivenom. Dr Glanville told AFP he had been looking for 'a clumsy snake researcher who'd been bit accidentally a couple times', when he came across a video of Mr Friede taking brutal back-to-back snake bites. When they first spoke, Dr Glanville said he told Mr Friede: 'I know this is awkward, but I would love to get my hands on some of your blood.' 'I've been waiting for this call for a long time,' came the response, Dr Glanville said. The antivenom described in the Cell paper includes two antibodies from Mr Friede's blood, as well as a drug called varespladib. It offered mice full protection against 13 of the 19 snake species tested, and partial protection for the remaining six. The researchers hope a future cocktail will cover far more snakes – particularly vipers – with further trials planned on dogs in Australia. Dr Timothy Jackson of the Australian Venom Research Unit praised the immunological research, but questioned whether a human needed to be involved, pointing to synthetically developed antibodies. Dr Glanville said the ultimate goal of his US-based firm Centivax was to develop a universal antivenom administered by something like an EpiPen, potentially produced in India to keep the costs down. Mr Friede said he was 'proud' to have made a 'small difference' in medical history. Now working for Centivax, Mr Friede stopped self-inflicting himself with venom in 2018 to save the firm from liability issues. But he hopes to get bitten by snakes again in the future. 'I do miss it,' he said. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Harvard gets other universities' backing in Trump funding fight
Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university's First Amendment guarantee of free speech. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG BOSTON, Massachusetts – A group of 18 leading US research universities, including Princeton, MIT, Caltech and Johns Hopkins, asked a federal judge for permission to file legal arguments in support of Harvard University in its high-stakes showdown with the Trump administration over more than US$2 billion (S$2.58 billion) in frozen grant money. The institutions have all received millions of dollars from the federal government for research that has 'advanced scientific knowledge, safeguarded national security, strengthened the American economy, and saved countless lives,' they said in a court filing on June 6 in Harvard's lawsuit. Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university's First Amendment guarantee of free speech and federal law governing administrative rulemaking. The fight is part of a broad-based effort by President Donald Trump to force sweeping changes at Harvard and other elite US universities. The government has also frozen or is reviewing federal funding to Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Columbia universities, among others. Harvard claims in its suit, filed in Boston federal court, that the Trump administration illegally suspended its funding in retaliation for its refusal to bow to 'unconstitutional demands' to overhaul governance, discipline and hiring policies, as well as diversity programmes. The president claims Harvard, the nation's oldest and richest university, has failed to combat anti-Semitism on campus and encourage viewpoint diversity. 'The cuts will disrupt ongoing research, ruin experiments and datasets, destroy the careers of aspiring scientists, and deter long-term investments at universities across the country,' the universities said in a request to file amicus curiae or 'friend of the court' arguments supporting Harvard's case against the government. The request to support Harvard also comes from Boston University, Brown University, Colorado State University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, Oregon State University, Rice University, Rutgers University, Tufts University, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Yale University. A group of states led by Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, also asked to file arguments in support of the university on June 6. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Straits Times
‘Cracking the wall' between AI and medicine
Professor Wong Tien Yin is embarking on a project to build an AI hospital for China's top-rated Tsinghua University. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN Nowhere has the excitement over how artificial intelligence (AI) will transform our lives been more potent than in the area of medicine, where it's been held to such lofty standards that people expect it will some day – hopefully soon – wipe out epidemics, extend human lifespan and maybe even cure cancer. The idea that AI will improve healthcare is not up for dispute. Real-life applications have already yielded positive results in more accurate and faster diagnostics, and streamlined operations in medical settings. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
