Lab 3 Journal Entry on Decomposers
Phylogeny of the brown lipped snail:
The brown lipped snail, also known as the grove snail, is known scientifically as Capaea nemoralis. It’s phylum Mollusca is very diverse and includes animals like squids, but it’s class Gastropoda is specific to just snails and slugs, while its family Helicidae is limited to air-breathing land snails.
The specimen looks like this image of a brown lipped snail taken by carlacorazza on iNaturalist:
An adaptation present in all observed species:
A specific adaptation common to all the decomposers observed is they secrete substances to live, including enzymes, mucus, and slime. For example, fungi secrete digestive enzymes to help them digest food extracellularly, worms secrete mucus to help them breath through their skin (aids in diffusion), and snails and slugs secrete “slime” to protect themselves from hazards.
One unique adaptation to one organism:
One unique adaptation of the brown lipped snail is the diversity in shell colour (brown, dark pink, light pink, very pale pink, dark yellow, and light yellow) and how the frequency of one shell colour changes based on location. Brown lipped snails are hunted by the song thrush bird which hunt by sight alone, so if the snail’s shell does not match its habitat it is more likely to be caught and die, explaining why certain shell colours would be favourable in similarly coloured locations.
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