Surfing Snails

Janthina Exigua or 'Bubble Rafting Snail'

This unusual specimen of marine life is part of a family called Janthinidae. Unlike most conventional snails who use their mucus to lubricate their path for easier movement, the Bubble Rafting Snail uses it to form a raft, enabling it to float at the top of the ocean.

The creature folds its foot (the foot being the underside of the snail) around a pocket of air, and then attaches the newly formed bubble to the others to extend the raft. The raft enables it to buoy itself at the surface of the water and then be transported by the current. Some can apparently generate around one mucus bubble per minute.

The Bubble Rafters also lack gravity sensing organs, so perhaps it is for the best that they have developed this mechanism. Adaptation at its best.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER