@mbari_news: Swimming snail or deep-sea butterfly? 🐌🦋✨⁠ ⁠ Instead of crawling over reefs, rocks, or kelp, these snails have a muscular foot that has evolved into a pair of “wings” allowing them to take advantage of the Earth’s largest habitat—the open waters between the sea’s surface and the seafloor. ⁠ ⁠ Pteropoda, the Latin name for these snails, means wing-foot. They are planktonic animals, so they are primarily carried along by the ocean’s currents. Pteropods are a widespread and diverse group and play an important role in the oceanic food web.⁠ ⁠ Shelled pteropods like the one in this clip, Procymbulia sp., produce a net of sticky mucous to trap marine snow—dead plant and animal remains, poop, and dust that falls from shallower water. These particles are constantly sinking through the water column, and there is still plenty of nutritious material left in them. The ability to passively catch your next meal in a drifting net is a great energy-saving adaptation for life in the open ocean. #ocean #deepsea #DeepOcean #oceanlife #yesitsreal

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Monday 04 May 2026 04:52:46 GMT