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wtf_nature
Bullia spp, The Surfing Snail
I checked the archives but I don't think this has come up before.
No pictures sadly, but Bullia's are a group of largish yellow sea snails from South Africa with a pretty cool ability. They can, quite literally surf. Being scavengers, whenever anything tasty (like a rotting fish) washes up on shore, there's a rush to get in there and chow down, and these boys have the answer to being...well, slow as a snail. They have a large foot and by tilting over and extending said foot, they can catch the waves and be gently washed in whichever direction they please. And when you've finished with the dead fish, you can always surf out to sea for a migratory bout of breeding.
Surfs up!
More info here:
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/factfiles/molluscs/surfing_snail_bg.shtml
No pictures sadly, but Bullia's are a group of largish yellow sea snails from South Africa with a pretty cool ability. They can, quite literally surf. Being scavengers, whenever anything tasty (like a rotting fish) washes up on shore, there's a rush to get in there and chow down, and these boys have the answer to being...well, slow as a snail. They have a large foot and by tilting over and extending said foot, they can catch the waves and be gently washed in whichever direction they please. And when you've finished with the dead fish, you can always surf out to sea for a migratory bout of breeding.
Surfs up!
More info here:
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/factfiles/molluscs/surfing_snail_bg.shtml