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Few things make my soul sink quicker than the irreversable crunch of an occupied snail shell beneath my clumsy feet. For some suicidal reason they tend to wait right outside my front door in the dark (who knew a snail's life could be so bad?)
A little luminous snail paint would stop me from treading
on them and killing them.
I'm personally planning on writing letters on each of mine, hoping that one day they'll congregate to form a half baked idea, in the spirit of infinate monkeys and infinate typewriters.
Snail_20Koans
all you have to do is teach them to spell "please don't step on me or my friends" [xenzag, Jun 06 2012]
Baked by evolution
http://en.wikipedia...ki/Quantula_striata
[MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 11 2012]
Forced evolution of intelligent gastropods.
http://www.news.com...rfro0-1226393927024
[AusCan531, Jun 13 2012]
ooh. I likes the visuals.
http://myintrepidad...n-land-animals.html
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 13 2012]
[link]
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Tiny solar cells, capacitors and LEDs with a self-adhesive backing would be even more beautiful. |
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Breed snails that leave trails of
phosphorescent slime? |
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SOPRSOS* might be interested in the glow-in-the-dark aspect. |
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(Society of Painting Racing Stripes on Snails) |
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Alternatively, paint your doorstep with luminous paint and avoid stepping on the dark bits. |
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The pop they make as they go under a bike tyre is less tactile, but just as disturbing. |
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I'd definitely agree with extending [DrBob]'s idea to cycle paths, particularly the off-road ones. |
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Much as I like the concept of luminescent snails, can't you just sprinkle some salt on your step to keep them away? |
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Perhaps you should exterminate your local snail
population, and replace them with naturally
bioluminescent ones <link>? |
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I'd like gengineered snails that leave luminous snail trails. |
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There's a freshwater shellfish that lives in New
Zealand that is bioluminescent. I've seen them and
wondered how it can possibly be to their benefit to
glow in the dark. |
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Glowing in the daylight doesn't make much sense. |
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Being a small, brightly lit snail in a river where the
fish eat snails is equally unusual, as a survival
strategy. It's a type of limpet, so mollusc. In any
case... drawing attention to your suitability as dinner
seems odd. |
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They're not just bioluminescent but phosphorescent,
as well; and less than a 1/2 inch across. |
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Very good. May all your paths be walled with loaded snail brushes. |
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// There's a freshwater shellfish that lives in New Zealand that is bioluminescent//
Maybe they swam there from Mururoa Atoll (invented by the French) |
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//There's a freshwater shellfish that lives in New Zealand that is bioluminescent. I've seen them and wondered how it can possibly be to their benefit to glow in the dark.// |
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Are they poisonous to the fish? It might be a warning in the same way as wasps and snakes are brightly coloured. luminescence might be a better signal in their environment. |
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Alternatively, it might be down to sexual selection. Such can lead to the evolution of 'honest signals'. Basically if a creature can survive well in spite of an impediment then it can be presumed to have good genes. Generally this is associated with sexual dimorphism - a drably coloured 'choosy' gender, and a gaily coloured (or long-tailed... whatever - or for this case luminescent) 'chosen' gender.
Since snails are often hermaphrodites, it could be that every member of the species fluoresces. I'm unaware of whether there are any known cases of sexually selected traits in hermaphroditic species, but I can't think of any theoretical reason why it wouldn't work. |
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[UB] //There's a freshwater shellfish that lives
in New Zealand that is bioluminescent. I've
seen them and wondered how it can possibly
be to their benefit to glow in the dark.// |
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Ah, but how many of them get stepped on? |
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I really like this idea. A very smart snail would write,
"Fishrat lives here" with a big arrow pointing at your
front door. |
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//Ah, but how many of them get stepped on?// |
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If the main cause of death of land snails is accidental crushing by sentimental creatures, then they may evolve luminescence all by themselves. A quick bit of GM with the glowing freshwater species could set them off to a good start. |
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We need to add it to dogshit, too. I'm pretty sure
we've already done that one. |
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Yep, way back in 2000. A real classic. |
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[Mickey The Fish], no less. Memory must be growing
dim... I thought it was a [monkfish] idea. |
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If you want to involve Darwinian forces, how about forcing our gastropodian friends to evolve intelligence as well as luminosity? [link] They can be bright in both senses of the word. |
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Just what we need... an invasion of glow-in-the-
dark, intelligent snails with Kiwi accents. |
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//It is also interesting to note that there are no luminous flowering plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians or mammals.// |
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...until we tampered with them anyhow. |
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Insects and worms get a look in, as do fish,
cephalopods, crinoids, cnidaria, fungi and a host of
other critters we rarely see. |
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Cereus, flax, moonflowers, passifloras... |
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//It is also interesting to note that there are no
luminous flowering plants, birds, reptiles,
amphibians or mammals.// |
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Apart from one. The stripes of the male Lesser
Sarawak Poison Tree Frog bioluminesce, but in
the near infrared and only when establishing
territories in the breeding season. Since neither
the male nor female of the species can see in the
infrared, the reason for this bioluminescence is far
from clear. |
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The intercalary twin spent over two years
researching this conundrum in the field. At least
that's what he says. Given the intimate nature of
the tattoo with which he returned from his
"fieldwork", Sturton and I strongly suspect that he
actually spent most of his time in his favourite bar
in Malacca. |
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Ah, I see.
Pardon me while I look up itnercalary won't you? |
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//itnercalary// intercalary. As in the intercalary
twin, having been born between myself and Sturton. |
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(When I say 'between', you will of course understand
that to be in the temporal rather than physical
sense of the word.) |
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Is he still intercalary, temporally speaking? Spending too
much time around those frogs will do weird things to a
man's mind. |
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So will spending too much time around those bars, for that
matter. |
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<ruminate> giant luminescent-trail snails painting traffic lines </r> |
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