http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/10/snails-ship-out-on-scrambled-eggs.html
Recent studies have shown that the shelled creatures belonging to the family Janthinidae, purple of violet snails, travel tropical waters clinging to flotation devices made up of strings of egg stuck together with goo. These bubble-rafting snails float upside down right below the surface in oceans across the globe. The snails wait for floating prey to helplessly wander by, and the janthinids extend their sharp mouths like cannons and bite of chunks from the animal. “Both male and female bubble-rafters secrete thick goo from their feet, and then fold the mucus to form air-trapping pockets,” explains Celia Churchill, an ecologist at the University of Michigan. Churchill and her colleagues dived into the unanswered question of how these rafts evolved. After thorough research looking at differences in DNA between janthinids and their close relatives, they concluded that bubble-rafters branched off at an unknown time on the snails’ evolutionary tree called epitoniids. Epitoniids live at the bottom of the sea feeding off of corals. Churchill and her team suspect that the snails’ evolution may have occurred like this: From time to time, bottom-dwelling wentletrap ancestors accidentally trapped small bubbles in their egg nets, and then floated to the surface until those bubbles popped. Because those high waters contained edible jellyfish, some wentletrap ancestors began to capitalize on making more bubbles, eventually exclusively floating. David Lindberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, elaborates that, “the janthinids are an incredibly extravagant group with an extraordinary evolutionary history.”
Letssgoo
First off, I thought that this review was very well written and provided for an extremely interesting and thorough review of the article. Mr. Lilly’s did a good job of keeping this article article packed with information, helping me understand more about these shelled creatures, while keeping me interested. I thought Mr. Lilly did a very good job of explaining the whole process that includes the bubble- rafting process. I feel that if Gibbs had not provided the information in the simple, eloquent way that he did, I would have had a very tough time understanding this concept. It was very interesting to me how Gibbs was able to track back to where this concept began, with the bottom-dwelling wentletrap ancestors and see what their motive was for performing that.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Mr. Lilly’s review was very thorough, there were still some things that I would have liked to learn more about. For example, when Mr. Lilly talks about the DNA tests that were conducted to find differences between these snails and other, I would have liked to know more about what kind of tests they did. I think that knowing this additional information would have allowed me to fully understand why these snails were so unique compared to others. Also, I would have liked to know why these studies will have such a “profound effect” on the evolution of the snail. Mr. Lilly talks about how new information discovered about when the janthinids branched off from the epitoniids could change what we know today; I would have liked to know more about how this will drastically change how we view the evolution of these creatures so much.
Lastly, it was interesting to learn about these shelled creatures that I had never heard of before. Mr. Lilly did a very impressive job of providing me with the right information so that I could understand the process that these snails perform.
Gibbs Lilly’s review of the article “Snails Ship Out on Scrambled Eggs” was both well presented and quite intriguing. One thing that I enjoyed was how he was able to properly and clearly explain the mechanism that allowed the snails to use bubbles as flotation devices. This could have been confusing, but Mr. Lilly did an excellent job explaining it. Furthermore, I appreciated the inclusion of several quotes from biologists and researchers. I felt that these gave the review a sense of validity and tied it back to the actual article nicely. Finally, I enjoyed the way the Mr. Lilly traced the possible evolutionary history behind this discovery.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, I felt that the review could still be improved by adding additional information. Mr. Lilly mentions that the purpose of the snails’ behavior is to allow them to catch prey. However, I was slightly confused about which animals this would enable them to consume. An example of this may have improved the review. Additionally, Mr. Lilly explains the snails’ behavior and the evolutionary history behind it, but fails to mention how this behavior was recently discovered.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Mr. Lilly’s review and was fascinated to learn about this peculiar survival mechanism. I previously had no idea that such an evolutionary development was even feasible.
Gibbs did an excellent job summarizing the article, and the use of multiple quotes greatly enhanced this review’s quality and credibility. Also, citing the article’s title as a drawing point was an excellent thing to include in his last paragraph. It’s quite bizarre, and grabs one’s attention, and Gibbs was smart to include that in his review. Generally, his description of the snails’ flotation device was extremely detailed and well done.
ReplyDeleteThere are, however, some things that Gibbs could work on. The part where he explains how these types of snails may have broken off from their relatives was a bit confusing. It probably could’ve cited more biological theory, and more general details as well. Also, Gibbs could have gone more in depth regarding his second paragraph. I would like to have him explain the implications on the snail’s evolutionary tree as a whole, and perhaps provide some examples.
I learned a lot from this review. The mere fact that such snails exist was new, and I especially thought their way of using the camaflouge to feed was quite interesting.
AP Biology Amy Pepe
ReplyDeleteCurrent Event Comment 10/13 10/13/2011
I read Gibbs Lilly’s review on the article about the snails. I thought that this review was very good and provided for an extremely interesting and thorough review of the article. Gibbs kept this review packed with information, helping me understand more about these shelled creatures, while keeping me interested. He did a very good job of explaining the whole process that includes the bubble- rafting process. I feel that if Gibbs had not provided the information in the simple, eloquent way that he did, I would have had a very tough time understanding this concept. It was very interesting to me how Gibbs was able to track back to where this concept began, with the bottom-dwelling wentletrap ancestors and see what their motive was for performing that.
Gibbs did have a very thorough review but, there were still some things that I would have liked to learn more about. For example, Gibbs talks about the DNA tests that were conducted to find differences between these snails and other, I would have liked to know more about what kind of tests they did. I think that knowing this additional information would have allowed me to fully understand why these snails were so unique compared to others. Also, I would have liked to know why these studies will have such a “profound effect” on the evolution of the snail. Gibbs talks about how new information discovered about when the janthinids branched off from the epitoniids could change what we know today; I would have liked to know more about how this will drastically change how we view the evolution of these creatures so much.
I had no idea that these snails even existed, so I was really happy to read Gibbs’ article. All of the little details really wowed me and overall I learned a lot.
Gibbs Lilly’s review of “Snails Ship Out on Scrambled Eggs” provided excellent information on an interesting subject. I enjoyed how he could explain the mechanism that allows the snails to produce bubbles as floatation devices so accurately. I further appreciated how Mr. Lilly was able to incorporate quotes from extremely credible sources, including biologists and researchers on this topic. This addition of quotations heightened the validity of his findings. Lastly, I enjoyed how Mr. Lilly added much of the history of this concept, adding information about the bottom-dwelling ancestors. Though the review is very thorough and written very well, there are a few things that Gibbs could have elaborated on. Something that was unclear to me through his review was exactly how the DNA tests were conducted, and to find the differences between these snails and the other kind. Knowing this information could make the research even more valuable to me as a student. I also was confused about which animas this would enable the snails to consume, for no examples hindered the impact of this review. Something I found incredibly interesting was the mere fact these kinds of snails existed, and I found their use of camouflage to feed to be even more exciting.
ReplyDeleteAs always, Gibbs dexterously summarized his article and effectively compiled the author’s key points to enhance the reader’s understanding of Janthinidae. Gibbs beautifully illustrated this unique species of janithinids and their remarkable ability to utilize natural floatation devices. He strategically incorporated various quotes from the author which not only helped readers garner better insight into this snail species, but also enhanced the credibility of his critique. Gibbs’ methodical approach to describing the bubble-rafting process made this otherwise enigmatic subject very understandable and clear.
ReplyDeleteWhile his article was adroitly versed and exceedingly informative, Gibbs could have elaborated on these shelled creatures in several regards. First, Gibbs briefly references DNA tests that were conducted by scientists to ascertain the differences between these snails and others. However he does not address any specifics behind the tests they did, which could have been useful in discerning how these janithinids evolved along such divergent lines. Second, Gibbs claims that the underlying goal behind the snails behavior is to ensnare prey. However, I remained confused as to the type of prey the snails would catch, as well as the manner in which they would do so.
To think that evolution has enabled animals to develop survival mechanisms as creative as natural floating devices is truly remarkable. I was amazed by the unique way in which the snails remain suspended in water. This review revealed to me a species whose existence I had previously been totally unaware of, and I am thankful for having chosen to read this review.
Gibbs Lilly’s review of “Snails Ship Out on Scrambled Eggs” was very well written and well presented. He did a great job of incorporating a lot of detail without making the review too packed with information. Furthermore, he did an excellent job of explaining how the snails use bubbles as floatation devices, and the mechanism behind that process. Also, I really enjoyed how he incorporated quotes from the newspaper to add to the meat of the review. Although this review was excellent, there are a few places Gibbs could have improved upon. For example, he could have explained in a little more detail as to how these DNA tests were conducted, which was a point of confusion for me upon reading the review. Also, he could have explained in a bit more detail why this data will have such an important effect on snails. Overall this was an excellent article review. The most interesting detail I learned upon reading this was that these types of snails even existed, which I had been unaware of prior to reading this. Gibbs did an excellent job with his review.
ReplyDelete