A couple of pieces from a paper I was an author on with a pair of leading scientists on molluscan physiology and feeding processes. The common slipper snail is ubiquitous on the eastern coast of North America and a pervasive invasive species in areas of the Eastern Atlantic off France and Spain. It is predominantly a filter feeder that can clear a lot of water as an individual. Still, considering it is gregarious and can occur in very high densities, the community can clear quite a bit of water of particulate matter. Most studies on its anatomy are quite old and don't agree with each other much, so this paper sought to do a careful anatomical study, try and get a tighter understanding of their feeding abilities and details of the mechanisms, and serve as a canonical reference for others going forward.

I designed and supervised the feeding studies executed, tabulated, and analyzed by my son (then 12), who wrote the rough draft of the results for that section of the paper and presented the results to the PIs. So cool to have my son working with me and have a paper out there with us as co-authors. Hopefully, we will be able to do it again as he heads off to graduate school.

I also did all of the paper's graphic elements, including two detailed drawings of the revised anatomy and feeding process and laying out video frames and micro-photographs. I am sharing the drawings and one figure of video frames showing feeding.

Bottom line? These little critters can feed a lot, and it is a very efficient feeding system if sloppy. Don't even ask about how we used a good video clip of coprophagy (eating of feces, in this case, their own) to figure out how fast the food string rotates... we were pretty excited when we discovered that clip and were able to time it accurately due to the video that was taken.