David Winter • Jul 29, 2012 •
Here's another of these tiny native snails I talked about last week. Aeschrodomus stipulatus: Not the best photo I'll admit, but it records enough detail to see the two things that set Aeschrodomus apart from most of its relati... Read More
David Winter • Jul 22, 2012 •
When I tell people I study snails for a living I get one of two replies. There's either some version of the "joke" that goes "that must be slow-going" or "sounds action packed", or there's "oh, you mean those giant killer ones we saw when we went tramp... Read More
David Winter • Jul 08, 2012 •
One awesome mollusc deserves another, so let's follow up last weeks octopus post with one on that group's close relatives the cuttlefish. Cuttlefish are relatively small (the largest grow to 50cm) squid-like cephalopods that present a n... Read More
David Winter • Jul 01, 2012 •
Here's a really cool animal, a female argonaut (sometimes called a paper nautilus): It may not be immediately obvious from the photo, but argonauts are octopuses. Strange octopuses, because the seven s... Read More
David Winter • Jun 17, 2012 •
Here's something cool that I've meaning to write about for a long time. A native Powelliphanta land snail with an apparently pigment-less foot and head: That snail (a close relative of speedy carnivore featured here) popped up... Read More
David Winter • Jun 03, 2012 •
I'm off to the Transit of Venus Forum next week. I'm looking forward to meeting all sorts of clever and interesting people (and escaping the coming snow), but travelling and conferring won't leave much time for a few projects I rea... Read More
David Winter • May 20, 2012 •
I though I'd do something a little bit different today. Instead of coming up with anything new to say or show you I'm going to steal from give a shout-out to a few New Zealand organisations that highlight some of the amazing ways that spinel... Read More
David Winter • May 06, 2012 •
In Dr Zhivago Boris Pasternak describes an epiphany that sneaks up on one of his characters thus: For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of her life. She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by ... Read More
David Winter • Apr 29, 2012 •
People seemed to like the idea of a marsupial land snail, so today I thought I'd go one step further, and introduce you to land snails that give birth to live young. I was lucky enough to spend a little time in Vanuatu a while ago, and, altho... Read More
David Winter • Apr 22, 2012 •
Yup, I'm continuing with last week's theme of terrible jokes. Of course you know the punchline for this one, what's brown and sticky? A stick: Both the objects in that photograph are brown and fairly sticky, but the one in the background is a b... Read More