Lizards on rafts

 

- Not sure if the journey was worth it, tbh...

"Iguanas sailed on rafts 34 million years ago". LOL, no, they didn´t. But the headline does sound funny. I mean, for a moment I hoped peer-reviewed Science (TM) had proved the Silurian hypothesis?! 

Alas, it´s an article about perfectly normal lizards clinging to masses of vegetation drifting with the ocean currents all the way from North America to the Fiji islands. The longest journey ever made by a non-human terrestrial animal, apparently. Somewhat ironically, the ancestors of the Fijian iguanas may have been desert-dwelling ditto in America. 

I assume their evolutionary adaptations to a desert environment (think extreme heat, almost no water) may have helped them survive on the "raft" in scorching tropical heat with no fresh water until they reached the land of milk and honey in the middle of the Pacific...

Iguanas on rafts

Insular gigantism

 

Why are rich people suddenly buying up islands all over the world? Edward Dutton and PJW comments...

I´m sure this isn´t a conspiracy of any kind. I mean, it´s already been exposed, right? :D

Don´t blame the National Science Foundation

"Endodontoid land snails from Pacific islands. Part I. Endodontidae". Such is the title of the rather large, hardcover volume under review. This monograph begins with a curious disclaimer. It was prepared with the support of National Science Foundation grant No. DEB75-14048. It seems the foundation doesn't just attack creationists! They are also interested in endodontoid land snails, particularly those of the family Endodontidae. However, the foundation sternly warns that any and all opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and don't necessarily reflect the view of NSF.

Presumably, this includes the computer-generated phylogeny of Thaumatodon, Zyzzyxdonta and Aaadonta. Not to mention the distribution of Opanara in the Mt. Perahu region. And what about the frequency of distribution of whorl counts in adult Libera fratercula? Don't blame the NSF if the authors got it all wrong! Incidentally, I didn't misspell "Zyzzyxdonta" and "Aaadonta". Something tells me whoever named these snails in Latin was a great fan of the Guinness Book of World Records! It's good to know that at least snail-collectors have a certain sense of humor, I know from previous experience at Amazon that bug-collectors and bird-watchers have none...

;-)

This is the first of two monographs on the endodontoid land snails of Polynesia, Micronesia and Fiji. The authors claim to have analyzed 26,000 specimens belonging to 285 species-level taxa in 215 genera. Hawaii have been mostly excluded from this study, however, since nobody has had the time, guts or inclination to go through the 58,000 Hawaiian specimens available in various collections. Why not? I've heard the Big Pineapple is a really nice place for a vacation trip. For the morbidly small sum of 2500 dollars per month (excluding taxes), I'm prepared to print out the specimen labels. Deal? Otherwise, I must say that snail research seems to be great fun. The author reveals that just a few hours of collecting on the Fijian islands led to the discovery of two entirely new species of land snails, previously unknown to science! Indeed, it's possible that many unknown snails have already been driven to extinction by invasive species from the mainland, including ants and...other snails!

The monograph contains the following chapters: Previous studies, Materials studied, Methods of analysis, Patterns of Morphological Variation, Phylogeny and Classification, and a systematic review with the actual species presentations. The drawings are extremely boring (as in "I was bored to death"). To a layman, one snail shell really does look like any other snail shell.

Perhaps I don't want that job, after all...

Besides, I probably would misspell Zyzzyxdonta, anyway.

Well, it´s a reference work, what did you expect, hula-hula dancers?

I know, it´s from the wrong ocean

This is the second, last but probably not least volume in the two-volume series "Endodontoid land snails from Pacific islands". It covers the families Punctidae and Charopidae. I noticed that many of them were scientifically described for the first time by the author himself. He must have spent a considerable time - and a considerable amount of NSF money - collecting snail shells on the islands of the Pacific. The book covers Fiji, Micronesia and Polynesia (except Hawaii). I'm not sure who would be interested in a work of this sort, but then, it's not a popularized book for the general reader. Indeed, you might get distinctly *un*popular telling your peers that their tax money goes to your pet hobby - collecting snails surrounded by females in hula-hula outfits that would make Captain Cook blush. Still, a reference work is a reference work is a reference work, and since I'm sure it really does work (as a reference, at least), I'll give it three stars.