Did you know there are snails that spend their entire lives swimming or drifting in the ocean? 🐌✨
Instead of crawling over reefs, rocks, or kelp, their muscular foot has evolved into a pair of "wings" allowing them to take advantage of the Earth's largest habitat—the open waters between the sea's surface and the bottom.
Pteropoda, the Latin name for these snails, means wing-foot. They are planktonic animals, so they are primarily carried along by the ocean's currents. Pteropods are a widespread and diverse group and play an important role in the oceanic food web.
There are two distinct types of pteropods—those with thin, lightweight shells and those that have completely lost their shells.
Shelled pteropods produce a net of sticky mucous to trap marine snow—dead plant and animal remains, poop, and dust that falls from shallower water. These particles are constantly sinking through the water column, and there is still plenty of nutritious material left in them. The ability to passively collect your next meal in a drifting net is a great energy-saving adaptation to living in the open ocean.
