Mass extinction victim survives: Snail long thought extinct isn't

Friday, June 3, 2011 - 10:30 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Think "mass extinction" and you probably envision dinosaurs dropping dead in the long-ago past or exotic tropical creatures being wiped out when their rainforest habitats are decimated. But a major mass extinction took place in North America in the first half of the 20th century, when 47 species of mollusk disappeared after the watershed in which they lived was dammed. Now, a population of one of those species -- a freshwater limpet last seen more than 60 years ago and presumed extinct -- has been found in a tributary of the heavily dammed Coosa River in Alabama's Mobile River Basin.

Read the whole article on Science Daily

More from Science Daily

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net