Australian Park Rangers Discover Neon Pink Slugs
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Slugs, those slimy ugly creatures that we all seem to hate, suddenly got a little more interesting and definitely a lot more noticeable, thanks to these giant neon pink ones that were recently discovered by park rangers in New South Wales, Australia
Besides being bright, these creatures that so far have only been discovered on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range, NSW, are also quite large - measuring eight inches or about twice the size of their modern-day counterparts.
Though the species is new to us, scientists believe that these slugs are an ancient creature - dating all the way to the time when Australia was covered with rainforests. While their counterparts living in other parts of the country were decimated as the continent became drier, these survived thanks a series of volcano eruptions at Mount Kaputar which itself is a remnant of an extinct crater. This, in addition to millions of years of geological changes has resulted in a unique ecosystem that has allowed invertebrates, as well as, plants from bygone eras to survive and even, thrive, in the lush region.
In addition to this bright slug, the rangers also found three species of cannibal snails - Ones that look like ordinary mollusks but slide around the forest floor seeking out the slime trail of fellow snails, and then diligently hunting them down to attack and devour! We wonder what other fascinating and colorful creatures inhabited the earth during ancient times.
Resources: news.yahoo.com, huffingtonpost.com
Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
554 Comments
- Isabellaalmost 6 yearsI love dogs and Chirstmas
- searchlightover 4 yearsyeah me to
- Averyalmost 6 yearsWho loves Christmas 😇.If you like Christmas please leave a comment.
- Averyalmost 6 yearsDo you like cats 🐯.If you do please leave a comment.
- phoenix113almost 6 yearsThis is amazing! follow me and I will follow you
- Averyalmost 6 yearsDo you like dogs.🐕if you do leave a comment please.
- ##N#almost 6 yearsWOW
- Corniyaabout 6 yearsthis is so cool because some of the snails we see they are brown and its amazing how their are snails that can be pink ,. Comment if pink is your Favorite color .and get this to 100 likes.
- Big Dabout 6 yearsso grose but so cool
- Snake girlover 6 yearsThat is so cool👍👍👍. But I want to see the video💁💁💁. Do somebody agree with me. Do They Have a video I WANT TO SEE THE VIDEO!!!!💓👎👎👎
- ????????over 6 yearsis there a video?