Most people view snails and slugs as pests. But these slimy streakers are far removed from one-dimensional garden destroyers. They amaze scientists with their abilities, and certain individuals have become the darlings of mass media.

The slow creatures can also get a little creepy. They hide inside humans and, thanks to the military, have evolved into things that include cyborg spy snails.

10 Strange Survival Mystery

Hahajima Island of Japan is home to a fragile snail. All right, “fragile” in the sense that it is really tiny—around 0.25 centimeters (0.1 in). A thumb can easily crush Tornatellides boeningi.

When researchers recently collected bird feces on the island, they found that it contained snail shells. Oddly, some of the snails appeared to be alive. Curious, the team fed over 100 mollusks to a captive population of the two bird species known to snack on the snails.

Remarkably, around 15 percent were expelled unharmed. One snail even gave birth shortly after being pooped out. The digestive system is not a Disney ride. The snails endure a harsh journey lasting 30 minutes to two hours. Why such a good percentage appear to suffer no ill effect is a mystery.^[1]

The best theories at this point?

Small equals survival. Tinier shells might be less prone to cracks and digestive juices seeping in. Tornatellides could also seal themselves away behind a mucous film that safeguards the shell’s opening.

9 Why Snail Sex Is Slow

One might be forgiven for thinking, “It is slow, because they are snails.” As garden snails are hermaphrodites, they can technically reproduce by themselves. However, they seem to prefer a partner. Each snail has eggs and sperm, seeking to both fertilize another and get fertilized at the same time.

The real reason why snails mate for up to three hours, which looks more like a cautious game than a passionate embrace, could be for their health. Researchers feel that snails do not really mind off-loading sperm but are careful about the quality of sperm they receive. Thus, they investigate the situation carefully.

If the partner is not desirable, the other might attempt to impregnate it while avoiding the unhealthy snail’s own attempts to do so. The whole dance is wrought with concentration and frustration. The complexities of snail courtship take precedence over everything, even safety. This is why mating snails are often out in the open and oblivious to their own vulnerability.^[2]

8 Snails Inside People

In 2018, an 11-year-old boy played inside a tide pool in California. During this time, he scraped his elbow. His parents made sure that the injury was disinfected and cleaned. However, a week after their trip to the beach, the wound still festered. They took their son to the doctor and explained that there was a tenacious blister that kept growing. The child was otherwise normal and healthy.

The medical staff decided to drain the blister, which was red and full of pus. After the abscess was opened, it sprang a tiny surprise on everyone—a minute sea snail. The checkered periwinkle was still alive despite being covered in human flesh and wound ooze for over a week.

Luckily, it never nibbled on the boy. Periwinkles are herbivores, and this one survived thanks to its usual habitat. They browse shoreline rocks, and since air is not always good for sea snails, the species can seal off its shell with thick mucus. This prevented the periwinkle from suffocating inside the wound.^[3]

7 Stepfather Snails

During a 2012 study, researchers found another great dad in the animal kingdom. The male marine whelk cares for his offspring, while the female leaves after mating and gluing egg sacks to his back. Each capsule contains about 250 eggs. The male must carry dozens of these bags for about a month, during which he loses a lot of weight.

However, the whelk is a dedicated dad. The species slithers about in California’s mudflats making sure that the eggs stay hydrated and cool. As if being a single dad is not hard enough, his kids are violent. Upon hatching, the baby snails massacre each other. The few siblings that survive are well-fed.

Worse, DNA analysis showed that, on average, a male cares for a mere 24 percent of his own progeny. The rest are fathered by up to 25 other males with which the mother was involved. Researchers believe that the dads accept the burden to show females that they are good parents and thus to earn more mating rights.^[4]

6 Mutant Love Drama

The common garden snail is a familiar sight. Normally, their shells swirl only to the right. A rare genetic mutation must occur for the sides to switch. In 2016, one was found in London and named Jeremy.

A year later, scientists wanted to learn more about “lefty” genetics and decided they wanted to have his babies. Since his condition prevented him from a successful mating with normal snails, they had to find another mutant.

In 2017, the call went out to find Jeremy a wife-husband. (They are hermaphrodites.) The world’s largest broadcasting organization decided to help. The BBC made the lonely snail’s plight public, and two mates were found. Enter Lefty, donated by a snail enthusiast from Ipswich, and Tomeu, who was spared after a BBC-watching restaurant owner from Catalan noticed one appetizer was a match.

With the whole world watching, Jeremy was rejected. The other two got together and made 170 baby snails. At least, shortly before Jeremy died that same year, he managed a fling with Tomeu that produced 56 babies.^[5]

5 They Get Kidnapped

Antarctic pteropods are tiny, glass-like snails. As they are delicate and live in the vast, dangerous ocean, pteropods have evolved to be highly toxic. This survival strategy comes with an unusual risk of getting kidnapped.

At one point, crustaceans called amphipods realized that the snails are so poisonous that predators avoid them. Not only are the amphipods immune to the mollusks’ deadly zap but they also abduct the pteropods to use as shields.

The crustaceans use two pairs of legs to keep the snails hostage, wearing the unlucky victims like backpacks. It takes a few snails to build the living armor, but they can cover up to half of the host’s back. This criminal behavior suits the amphipods well because it convinces predators to go look for lunch elsewhere.^[6]

The snails get a raw deal. Once kidnapped, they cannot feed and eventually starve to death. To add insult to injury, their corpses are often kept by the amphipods that abducted them.

4 Lonely George

There was once a Hawaiian tree snail that lived an unusual life. Never did this slimy creature sail up a tree in the wilderness because Lonely George was born and raised in the laboratory.

His ancestors—the last 10 Achatinella apexfulva—were captured for a breeding program in 1997. The attempt at snail romance was a disaster. For unknown reasons, all the babies died except for one. George lived for 14 years at the University of Hawaii, becoming a local celebrity and doing tours to educate schoolchildren about the environment.

George was the last of his kind. The mysterious maladies that wiped out his peers also killed off the original 10 adult snails. Hawaiian tree snails were once so plentiful that 19th-century records describe how Europeans collected 10,000 a day.

This harvest was half of the problem that ended up killing the species. At one point, the rosy wolfsnail was brought to Hawaii. The idea was to use this foreign species to eat another invasive snail, the African land snail. Except the rosy wildly feasted on native species, too. George died in 2019.^[7]

3 The Pink Slug

Australia is home to some of the strangest species on Earth. This fact echoed in the recent discovery of a new slug. The species (Triboniophorus aff. graeffei) is big and neon pink.

Measuring 20 centimeters (8 in) long, it crawls along a single mountaintop. For a long time, scientists knew the creatures were on Mount Kaputar but thought they belonged to the red triangle variety. The latter is a common sight along Australia’s east coast. A new study identified the separate species as one that evolved on Kaputar.

The slugs often live among red eucalyptus leaves, a clue as to why they turn hot pink. But camouflage does not explain why the slugs spend a lot of time out in the open. Their unusual shade might be an evolutionary quirk.

Mount Kaputar was an isolated oasis in a desert for millions of years, and such havens can produce odd creatures. Apart from giant pink slugs, the mountain also spawned unique species like the Kaputar cannibal snail and the Kaputar hairy snail.^[8]

2 Solar-Powered Slugs

As the name suggests, Elysia chlorotica is stuffed with chloroplasts. This allows the sea slugs to do something amazing—they photosynthesize like plants. Similar to plants, the slugs are green and leaf-shaped.

Found off the United States’ East Coast, this ability does not come naturally. They poach the chloroplasts from algae. After absorbing enough, they do not eat for more than nine months. They merely bask in the sun and make their own sustenance.

It remains unclear how the chloroplasts live so long and remain unharmed by the slug’s gut or immune system. In turn, the slug mysteriously survives deadly amounts of free oxygen radicals produced by photosynthesis.^[9]

How do the plant parts and the animal parts even interact?

Only a thorough analysis could clarify the symbiosis. Unfortunately, this unique animal-plant hybrid is almost impossible to find in the wild and does not live long in the laboratory.

1 Future Spies

Snails do not care for human politics. But the intelligence community cares about snails. The research arm of the United States military (DARPA) wants mollusks as batteries and listening devices.

In 2012, a project successfully turned a snail into a living battery. The experiment used the animal’s blood sugar to recharge a battery-like implant, which generated a sustainable amount of energy for months.

Although the snail equals just below the charge of an AAA battery, researchers have big dreams. They plan on tweaking the technology-biology link until snails can generate enough power to run microelectronics. This would allow the creatures to slide up and down enemy walls as living sensors and detectors. They could even get saddled with miniature cameras.^[10]

Although turning snails into cyborgs sounds weird and hurtful, the mollusks live close to normal lives. The success of their energy capacity depends on resting and eating during which glucose levels recharge the battery.

Eight mummified children, probable victims of human sacrifice; the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, lost for over a century in Antarctic waters; the remains of woolly rhinos that once roamed southern England. Those are just a taster of some of the amazing finds that researchers have uncovered in the last 12 months. Read on for fascinating insights into what archeologists were up to during the year.

10 Endurance Found

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s feats of polar exploration in the early 20th century are the stuff of legend. One of his quests, the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, set off in the summer of 1914. The ambitious aim was to cross the Antarctic by way of the South Pole. But the <Endurance, the ship carrying the team to Antarctica, became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea off the Antarctic coast early in 1915.

After months of entrapment, the 28-strong crew’s only option was to abandon the ship and try to reach civilization by whatever means they could. Against the odds, they all managed to survive. Meanwhile, the stricken ship sank beneath the ice. The last anyone saw of the vessel was in November 1915, when Shackleton and his party had abandoned it. Or that was the case until March 2022, when a team using underwater robots found it 10,000 feet (3,050 meters) below the ice of the Weddell Sea. Project leader Dr. John Shears said, “We have achieved what many people said was impossible.”^[1]

9 Human Sacrifice

Sometimes archaeological finds can be pretty horrifying, and this macabre 2022 discovery surely falls into that category. Researchers were working on a dig in Peru, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of the nation’s capital, Lima. They were excavating the grave of what’s been described as a “high-ranking person” from pre-Incan times, about 1,000 to 1,200 years ago. This individual, aged about 25 or 30 and perhaps a wealthy merchant, had been mummified.

But something else emerged from the tomb. The excavators unearthed eight mummified children swathed in cloth. One of the team’s leaders, Pieter Van Dalen Luna, said, “The children, according to our working hypothesis, would have been sacrificed to accompany the mummy to the underworld.” In a gruesome ritual common enough in pre-Incan Peruvian societies, people of rank were often buried with victims of human sacrifice.^[2]

8 Big Game

British wildlife experts will tell you that the biggest land animal you’re likely to see in their homeland is a red deer. When it comes to predators, foxes and badgers are at the top of the pile. But not so long ago, the British mainland was home to a far richer diversity of animals roaming the wilds of the undeveloped land. That truth was firmly reinforced by an archaeological find announced in February 2022.

According to the principal archaeologist at this dig, this find was not only “a once-in-a-lifetime experience for those involved” but also “a major discovery of national significance” to boot. The excavation in the southern English county of Devon at the site of a new town development revealed the remains of some extraordinary creatures. Mammoths, wooly rhinos, and even hyenas were uncovered, with their bones dating back from 30,000 to 60,000 years ago, around the middle of the last Ice Age.^[3]

7 Finding a Goddess

As this discovery shows, it’s not always professional archaeologists that make the most stunning finds. A Palestinian farmer, Nidal Abu Eid, was cultivating his land in Khan Younis, located in the Gaza Strip. Abu Eid told the BBC, “We found it by chance. It was muddy, and we washed it with water.” He might not be an archaeology professor, but he knew he’d found something significant.

Abu Eid continued, “We realized that it was a precious thing, but we didn’t know it was of such great archaeological value. We thank God, and we are proud that it stayed in our land, in Palestine, since the Canaanite times.” And the 4,500-year-old 8.7-inch (22-centimeter) stone head is indeed from the time of the Canaanites. It is the head of Anat, a Canaanite goddess of love and war.^[4]

6 Ghost Footprints

In July 2022, archaeologists stumbled across some extraordinary tracks in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert—described as ghost footprints. The barefoot tracks were not, of course, really made by ghosts but by our own ancient relatives, perhaps as long ago as 12,000 years at a time when the last Ice Age was ending. The researchers spotted a few of the footprints by chance as they drove to a site they were working on nearby.

Further investigation using ground penetrating radar uncovered a total of 88 footprints. Researchers reckon they belonged to a band of adults and children, with the youngest child perhaps just 5 years old. These ancient people were walking across what were then extensive wetlands. One of the archeologists, Anya Kitterman, said that these ancient footprints were a “once-in-a-lifetime discovery.”^[5]

5 A Royal Shipwreck

It’s May 6, 1682, and the Duke of York is sailing aboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Gloucester. He’s an important man, next in line for the throne if anything happens to his brother, the current monarch, Charles II. But disaster strikes as the ship sails off the North Sea coast of England. The vessel becomes stranded on a sandbank and begins to sink. As the waves close over it, as many as 250 of the 330 passengers and crew aboard perish.

And that was the last anyone saw of the Gloucester until 340 years later when keen divers, brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, discovered the wreck. They had set out to find the Gloucester but, after four fruitless years, were on the point of giving up when their discovery came. Lincoln told the BBC, “It was awe-inspiring and really beautiful. It instantly felt like a privilege to be there; it was so exciting.” And the Duke of York? Providentially he survived, succeeding to the British throne as James II in 1685.^[6]

4 Historic Phallus

It might well be the most commonly scrawled piece of crude graffiti in the entire history of humanity. We’re talking about the instantly recognizable stylized representation of the male genitals. As this particular archaeological find shows, the familiar phallus symbol has been around at least since ancient Roman times.

This formidable 18-inch (45-centimeter) phallus is actually a carved relief sitting proudly on a large lump of rock, part of a ruined building in southern Spain. Iberians originally lived at this site, but Romans took it over some 2,200 years ago. Lead archaeologist Andrés Roldán said, “It was common to put [phallic symbols] on the facades of houses, and soldiers carried small phallic amulets as symbols of virility. But this one is unusually large.”^[7]

3 40 Mistresses

Some of Syria’s archaeological treasures have taken a terrible beating because of the civil war that’s raged in the unfortunate nation in recent years. But in 2022, researchers unearthed a stunning Roman mosaic, and despite dating back some 1,600 years, it’s astonishingly well preserved. The mosaic, measuring 65.5 by 20 feet (20 by 6 meters), is located in the central Syrian town of Rastan.

The gorgeous artwork shows various mythological scenes described by the ancient Greek poet Homer in his epic works The Iliad and The Odyssey. Hercules can be seen putting the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, to the sword. Also included is the Roman god of the sea, Neptune, accompanied by his 40 mistresses. The building where the mosaic was uncovered was in the hands of rebel fighters for a period. They even tried to sell it, thankfully, without success.^[8]

2 USS Samuel B. Roberts

The U.S. Navy ship Samuel B. Roberts went to the bottom of the Philippine Sea during the Battle off Samar in October 1944. And yes, in this case, “off” is correct. The ship was sunk by the Japanese after an intense battle during which the Samuel B. Roberts was pitched against overwhelming odds. When she sank, there were 224 men aboard .and 89 lost their lives. The remaining crewmen were rescued after spending 50 hours in the water. [16]

Texan businessman Victor Vescovo was the man behind the discovery, using his own two-man submarine, the Limiting Factor. Describing the battle in which the American ship sunk, Vescovo said, “It was just an extraordinary act of heroism. Those men—on both sides—were fighting to the death.” The Samuel B. Roberts lies at a depth of 22,621 feet (6,895 meters), making her the deepest shipwreck ever discovered. The second deepest wreck ever found was the USS Johnson at 21,180 feet (6,460 meters). She, too, was lost at the Battle off Samar and was also discovered by Vescovo.^[9]

10 24 Etruscan Bronze Statues

It comes as something of a surprise to learn that one effective way to preserve a bronze statue over many centuries is to immerse it in a mix of boiling water and mud. But archaeologists found not just one but 24 stunning bronze statues at an ancient Italian spa, San Casciano dei Bagni. It’s believed the beautifully wrought statues are more than 2,000 years old.

It was the Etruscans who constructed a network of spas in this area of Tuscany near the city of Siena. After the Etruscans, the Romans further developed the complex, and hot pools at the site are still used today. But why did these remarkable statues end up at the bottom of a muddy pool? Archaeologists believe that wealthy citizens may have placed the statues in the hot springs as offerings to the ancient gods.^[10]

It’s hard to think of a monarch who has inspired as much heated debate as King Richard III of England. Was he an evil pantomime villain? Or a misunderstood peacekeeper? He spent the first 30 years of his life playing the loyal brother to King Edward IV, maintaining order and upholding justice in the north of the country.

Then, on Edward’s death in 1483, he apparently underwent a complete personality change. He’d been trusted by his brother to act as Lord Protector and make sure the heir, Prince Edward, was placed safely on the throne. Instead, Richard declared the heir illegitimate, chased the widowed queen into hiding, and imprisoned both of his nephews in the Tower of London. He then promptly proclaimed himself King of England. The two boys were never seen again.

His triumph didn’t last long, though. Soon after Richard’s coronation, his son and heir, Edward of Middleham, died at the age of 10 from an unknown illness. A short while later, his wife, Ann Neville, died of presumed tuberculosis. Richard himself died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, just two years after becoming king, while fighting desperately to defend his crown. He was beaten by a distant relative named Henry Tudor—and a new era was ushered in.

In a strange postscript to a bizarre and short-lived reign, Richard’s skeleton was discovered under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester in 2012. Until then, his final resting place had been a mystery, and many experts had given up hope that he would ever be found. Richard’s skeleton was carefully excavated, and his remains were studied. He now lies in state at Leicester Cathedral. A visitor’s center has been set up over the site where his remains were discovered, and the actual spot where his body lay for over 500 years can be viewed through a glass floor.

Using modern isotopic techniques and DNA analysis, scientists have been able to learn a lot about Richard’s life and the manner of his death from his skeleton. And the results—like everything surrounding Richard III—are absolutely fascinating.

10 Is It Really Richard’s Skeleton?

There is a 99.999% chance that the skeleton belongs to Richard. We know this because scientists tirelessly worked to sequence the mitochondrial DNA from the bones and match it with two living relatives, Wendy Duldig and Michael Ibsen. Richard’s son didn’t survive to reproduce, so they traced the line all the way down from Richard’s sister, Anne of York, to descendants alive today.

Other information gleaned from the skeleton supports this conclusion. Forensic analysis of the bone joints suggests that the skeleton belonged to an adult male aged 30–34. As Richard died at the age of 32, this would fit.^[1]

9 Taken to Grey Friars after Death

Throughout the centuries, there have been theories about what might have happened to Richard’s remains after the Battle of Bosworth. The most famous emerged in 1611 when the Chronicler John Speed published an account in which he described a mob of Leicestershire locals seizing Richard’s skeleton and tossing it off Bow Bridge into the River Soar. As a result of this (untrue) account, many believed Richard’s remains were lost forever.

We now know that Richard’s body was carried from Bosworth Field to Leicester after his death and laid to rest in the Grey Friars Church. It was the foundation of the church that archaeologists—working in conjunction with Leicester City Council, the University of Leicester, and the Richard III Society—were trying to uncover. They were working on a hunch that the deposed king might have been taken there after the battle and buried in the crypt. They were a mere six hours into the two-week dig when they found Richard!^[2]

8 No Withered Arm

In his famous play Richard III, Shakespeare described the king as having several birth defects, including a hunchback and a withered arm. Richard is portrayed as a treacherous and backstabbing usurper, taking joy in the misery of others and declaring himself a proud “villain” to the audience within the first few lines of the play.

Analysis of the skeleton shows that Richard’s arms had developed normally and were of equal length. This eagerness to cast Richard in the role of pantomime villain was probably due to the audience Shakespeare was writing for—after all, Shakespeare lived during the Tudor era, and Queen Elizabeth was the grandchild of the man who had deposed Richard and taken his crown. A play that praised Richard or presented him in a positive light would not have gone down very well!^[1]

7 Stricken with Scoliosis

An examination of Richard’s spine confirms that he did, in fact, suffer from severe scoliosis, which would have resulted in uneven shoulders (his right shoulder would have been higher than his left shoulder). This matches accounts written by his contemporaries during his lifetime.

It doesn’t seem to have hampered his ability to fight, though, and he won many battles on behalf of his brother during Edward IV’s reign.^[4]

6 Above Average Height

Richard’s skeleton shows that he was 5ft 8in (173 centimeters) tall, which was above average for the time. However, scientists believe that the effect of the scoliosis on Richard’s spine would have made him appear quite a lot shorter than this.

Also, Richard’s portraits often don’t truly portray the man. He is shown as an older king who looks little like the young man he was. Richard was only 32 at his death, and a new facial reconstruction from his skull was revealed to show a more accurate picture.^[5]

5 His Feet Were Missing

Don’t worry—his feet were still attached to him during his lifetime! They had been separated from the rest of his body at some point during the 500 years he lay in the earth. His skeleton was also missing a leg bone. This isn’t particularly unusual for very old remains. In fact, scientists were surprised that the skeleton was so complete!

He probably lost his feet and the missing leg bone during the Victorian era, when an outhouse was built directly above his resting place. Luckily, the rest of the skeleton was left intact for us to examine. Phew!^[6]

4 Multiple Injuries at Death

Medieval battles were tough, unforgiving, and super gory. With no guns to give you the advantage and a limited choice of long-range weapons, combatants were forced to get up close and personal—stabbing, clobbering, and grappling their opponents into submission. Scientists counted eleven wounds on Richard’s body, including blows to his face and ribs, which were severe enough to impact the bones.

We know that Richard received these wounds on or around the time of his death because they hadn’t begun to heal. It’s likely that there were other, more superficial wounds that we can’t see evidence of.^[7]

3 Killed by Blow to Head?

Richard’s skull shows evidence of three very serious injuries sustained on the battlefield. One is a small hole to the side of his head, which may have been caused by a long, thin dagger. The other two are larger wounds at the back and base of the skull and would have been caused by something larger, like an axe or a sword. Both larger wounds could have been fatal, and either could have caused his death.^[8]

2 Stabbed in the Butt

Scientists have identified a mark on Richard’s pelvic bone, which suggests he may have been stabbed in the backside by a sword around the time of his death. Since he would have been wearing heavy armor during the battle, historians think that this wound was probably inflicted after Richard had been killed and stripped of his clothing.

It’s likely the act was symbolic, and it may have been inflicted on his bottom instead of his face to ensure that he would still be recognizable to his supporters when his dead body was paraded around the streets.^[9]

1 Change in His Diet

Using isotopic analysis, scientists can tell an incredible amount about Richard’s diet. They know he ate a lot of fish—typical of a high-status individual at the time. Amazingly, they can tell from studying his tooth enamel that he spent his early childhood in the east of England (he was born in Northamptonshire) but that he had moved to the west of the country by the age of seven. They can also see that his wine consumption increased dramatically in the final years of his life, along with the luxuriousness of his food, and this tallies with his ascension to the throne.^[10]