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SEAS: Student Experiments At Sea

Larval ecology of deep-sea snails

There follows a 2-column table. The first column contains a picture. The second contains descriptive text.

Snail egg capsules, on mussel shells

Start with the snail embryos – egg capsules

Ahna's first step involved studying the snails in the laboratory setting. She collected adults, placed them in saltwater tanks with suitable substrate (e.g. mussel shells) for egg laying, and fed them bacteria. The snails started laying egg capsules on the mussel shells. These egg capsules were typically 1.2 - 2.3 mm in length and contained 80-200 embryos per capsule! The snail embryos stayed in these egg capsules for 4 months!