A Rare Snail Living on Driftwood is Discovered in the Arctic Ocean
Phoenix666 writes:
The mollusk Leptogyra bujnitzkii first appeared in a biological collection in Russia thanks to the legendary Arctic drift that began on 23 October 1937. Three icebreaking steamers-Georgiy Sedov, Malygin and Sadko-were beset and drifting in the ice following the sea current in the area of the New Siberian Islands. The same current transports driftwood from the Siberian rivers toward Greenland. In August 1938, the veteran icebreaker Yermak freed the Sadko and Malygin. However, the Sedov, whose rudder was badly damaged, had to be left in the ice as a drifting high-latitude station. This enforced wintering in the Arctic resulted in many scientific discoveries, included the debunking of the myth about the Sannikov Land.
The discoveries, however, continue today. The latest has been the discovery of sea snails from the subclass Neomphaliones among the exhibits in the collection compiled by the research expedition of the Sadko. The species description was based on only two specimens raised from a depth of about 3800 metres north of the Laptev Sea. Initially, in 1946, the Russian hydrobiologist Grigory Gorbunov assigned it to the genus Ganesa. Then, in 2003, the mollusk was assigned to the genus Skenea. However, in 2020, the experts' opinion about the rare sea snail unexpectedly changed.
The snail seems to be a sort of extremophile related to species that live near black smokers at the bottom of the ocean.
Journal Reference:
Ekaterina N. Krol, Ivan O. Nekhaev. "Redescription of Leptogyra bujnitzkii (Gorbunov, 1946) comb. nov., the first representative of the gastropod subclass Neomphaliones from the high Arctic", Zootaxa (2020). DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4759.3.13
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