The Mighty Snail and The Burger Bun Crumb

Snails may look like alien life forms, but their ancestors are one of the earliest types of animals on earth. Based on fossil findings of primitive gastropods, they have been inhabitants of our planet for over 500 million years.

During an evening of summer 2014 I had an encounter with one of these amazing creatures and the privilege to share a burger with it! Actually, the snail had only a few crumbles that fell off from my burger bun. Nevertheless, he or she - as they are hermaphrodites – seemed to enjoy them so much that I was tempted to catch this moment on the video I am sharing with you today.

You probably cannot see his eyes filled with enjoyment while eating it, but you probably noticed his great appetite from how it stretches out to reach the crumble and how determined he is to finish his dinner.

You may have also noticed his mouth, as he is trying to grab some small bites from that crumble. What some of you may not know though, is that snails can have over 25,000 “teeth” arranged in 80 or so rows on their tongue. There are over 60,000 different species of snails (only the shelled gastropods) around the world, so these figures do not apply for all of those species.

Another interesting fact about these extraordinary creatures is that while most of them live around 2-3 years, larger species may live over 10 years out in the wild and there are some rumours for species that live over 70 years! If somebody reading this post has a deeper knowledge on the subject, please confirm if this rumour stands on the comments bellow and feel free to share any other information of interest.

Image & Video Sources: All photos and videos, unless otherwise stated, were taken by me.