Biogeography: molecular trails from hitch-hiking snails - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2006 Jan 26;439(7075):409.

doi: 10.1038/439409a.

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Biogeography: molecular trails from hitch-hiking snails

Edmund Gittenberger et al. Nature. 2006.

Abstract

Darwin was fascinated by the transportation of land snails across great swathes of open ocean by birds--he even immersed snails in sea water to see how long they would survive. Here we follow a molecular phylogenetic trail that reveals the incredible transequatorial dispersal of the land snail Balea from Europe to the Azores and the Tristan da Cunha islands, and back again. This long-distance dispersal is unexpected for what are proverbially considered the most pedestrian of creatures.

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