Cipangopaludina Snail

Cipangopaludiana japonica? snail found in the Potomac River outside of Washington, D.C. It is not a native species of the United States but found its way here from Asia. I have posted about this snail before but those were found in the White River of Indianapolis, Indiana. See that entry from November 15, 2010. The specimen was cleaned up and I posted it on April 2, 2011, see post here.

I wonder if this snail is edible. There is a show on Korean television (KBS) called Screening Humanity. They profile different households around Korea every week. One older couple who lived in the countryside was shown preparing marsh snail soup. It looks like the snails are soaked in clean water and then boiled later. A needle is then used to extract the snail out of the shell. I am not sure what is next in the recipe as they did not show that part on the show.

The two specimens shown in this posting have been cleaned.

Thanks to Kenny for specimens.

Smaller specimen shown.

Animal Armageddon Videos

Exploring around on YouTube, I came across a video about the Ordovician/Silurian mass extinction that happen some 450 million years ago. The video was shown on the Animal Planet channel in 2009 and was called Animal Armageddon Episode 1 Death Rays. They speculate that the extinction was triggered by a massive gamma ray burst from a dying star.  This radiation exposed the Earth to fatal levels of energy that wiped out 2/3 of species or 85% of animal life.
It is neat to see computer animations of the sea environment with creatures like straight-shelled cephalopods, Eurypterids sea scorpions, trilobites,  Astraspis fish, and Acanthodian fish. Learn more at the Animal Planet web site for the show and on Wikipedia.org.

The total episode lasts 45 minutes and is shown below:



The second episode entitled Hell on Earth is about the Devonian extinction. They speculate that volcanic eruptions could have caused the extinction.

More Guam Material

I have been studying some more of the material from the island of Guam. The first picture shows a Baculogysina foraminifera shell be tested it a weak acid (white vinegar). It looks to be a carbonate.

The next picture appears to be an Amphisorus foraminifera.

 The following image of a foraminifera appears to be Calcarina.

The last image is of maybe a fragment of an Amphisorus.

Images have a 2-3 mm field of view.

Thanks to Pam for obtaining the specimens and Herb for getting it to me.