"Hairy snail" among 150 new mollusc species discovered in Australia

Australian researchers have discovered more than 150 new species of snails and molluscs.

Researchers surveying the remote islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia (WA) documented a series of previously undiscovered land snail living in the untouched region.

Having recently completed analysis of the survey, which ran from 2009 to 2011, scientists concluded that there was up to 13 unique species of snail living on each of the islands.

The newly discovered molluscs range from snails less than two millimetres long to larger snails covered in "alien-like" hair.

With 180 species of land snails previously identified in the area, the study suggests that the Kimberley is home to a third of Australia's snail population.

Frank Koehler, a research scientist with the Australian Museum and leader of the expedition, said the diversity of the new species' was striking.

"I was just astounded by the huge diversity that I found. As a European it was simply something out of my grasp," Koehler told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

"There's amazing diversity in terms of their shells, shapes and sizes. Each species has its own ecological niche.

"They're very beautiful animals."

While the research remains in its preliminary stages, Koehler said he had developed theories about how each species used its unique attributes.

"Probably the most unusual ones would be the tiny little species that have hairy shells," he said.

"It's quite unusual for snails to have hairs on their shell, and one idea is that little particles of soil get entangled in these hairs and they help the shell to be camouflaged."

Each of the newly-discovered species appears to have developed its own way of surviving the extreme weather cycles of the Kimberley climate.

"These snails hibernate and during the dry season are buried in the ground, but as soon as it rains they come out and they climb up the trees," Koehler said.

He said despite the findings he believed his research only scratched the surface and there could be up to 700 unique snail species living in the region.

source: Xinhua