who will be elected mollusk of the year?

The International Mollusk of the Year competition opens Wednesday. It aims to highlight these species to better protect them.

Sloppy, disgusting and repulsive… Slugs, snails and other gastropods, terrors of our vegetable gardens, nevertheless have their own beauty contest: the International Mollusk of the Year competition is being held from Wednesday March 13 until April 14 . The vote is organized by the Center for the Study of Genomic Biodiversity, based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Five finalists were selected from more than 50 different species. Among them this year, a freshwater mussel from Alabama in the United States, one specimen of which has reached the canonical age of 79 years; an Atlantic squid with eight arms capable of running at 40 km/h to escape its predators; and three species of gastropods, including the famous Phuphania Crossei, “a snail found in the tropical forests of Thailand”explains Carola Greve, director of the LOEWE laboratory in Frankfurt.

“The Phuphania Crossei can emit a green light, making it look like a sort of living glow stick.”

Carola Greve, director of the LOEWE laboratory in Frankfurt

“This is very rare in land snails. Perhaps this bioluminescence serves to escape predators. Producing light takes a lot of energy from the animal”specifies the specialist.

And the winner 2023 is…

Like every year, the genome of the mollusk that wins the competition will be mapped to better understand its evolution and its scientific interest. “Mollusks appeared at the beginning of animal life on Earth, around 500 million years agoexplains Julia Sigwart, head of the mollusk studies section, New species are discovered every year. You might think that a snail looks like any other snail, but there are nearly 100,000 different species! We still have a lot to discover. Many medical advances come from work on molluscs, particularly in neurobiology. says the scientist.

In 2023, a marine snail native to the coasts of Chile and Peru won the competition. An abalone very popular with gourmets and threatened by overfishing.