Vertigo snails have lived on Earth for tens of millions of years, and in that time they have inhabited every continent except the Antarctica. An international team of zoologists led by researchers from Masaryk University has shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms of these tiny land snails. The results of their research were published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Vertigo snails are among the smallest terrestrial gastropods, with shells usually less than 2 millimetres in size. There are currently about 100 known extant species, mostly found in the northern hemisphere, with ten of them know also from the Czech Republic. The researchers have shown, among other things, that Vertigo might be the oldest known genus among terrestrial gastropods. They found that the long evolution of Vertigo was significantly influenced by intercontinental dispersal, but also by the Pleistocene climate changes, i.e. the alternation of ice ages and interglacial periods over the last 2.5 million years, and the presence of continental ice sheets.
"Many small gastropods, like Vertigo, are remarkable for their ability to disperse passively with the help of moving animals, especially birds. They can both be carried in their feathers and, under lucky circumstances, can even survive passage through their digestive tracts," described the modes of their long-distance dispersal, zoologist Michal Horsák from the Masaryk University, Institute of Botany and Zoology at the Faculty of Science.
Through more than 15 years of systematic research, scientists have been able to obtain genetic data from almost all known Vertigo species, many of which they have described as new to science. To assess changes in ecological requirements and geographic distribution, scientists have collected data from more than 7,000 Vertigo populations. By linking the new data to existing Vertigo fossils, they created a temporal estimate of the evolution of each species. This gave them a clearer picture of the evolutionary events and rates of diversification over time.
According to the researchers, Vertigo is a unique model for studying evolution triggered by long-distance dispersal and colonization of new environments. "They allow us to understand the evolution of the now vividly discussed biodiversity issues, which we are rapidly losing due to ecosystem modifications, pollution or global change," Horsák explained. The research has also provided new insights into the role of the changing glacial and interglacial periods during the Quaternary, of which there have been around 50 in the last 2.5 million years.
Details of the research can be found in the press release HERE.
Link to the publication in Global Ecology and Biogeography HERE.
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