Reading time: 2minutesInvasive species, like this flatworm, contribute to land snail extinctions. (Photo credit: S. Sugiura)
Extinction rates for island land snails commonly range from 30% to as high as 80% on some volcanic islands, according to a new review paper that confirms “devastation” is no exaggeration for the state of global snail biodiversity. Lead author Robert Cowie of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and an international team of researchers published their findings in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
“The Hawaiian Islands, especially, were home to at least 750 known species,” said Cowie, who is a research professor with the Pacific Biosciences Research Center in…
