An evening about snails

In a lecture and discussion evening about “Schnecken” (snails) at the “Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung” SOSA’s co-chair, Prof Dr Julia Sigwart, gave a humorous insight into the world of marine and terrestrial snails. Through engaging storytelling, she showed that these slimy creatures are actually quite lovable! Sigwart elicited an interactive discussion where she explained the evolutionary advantage of shell-less slugs, the origin of bright shell colors (spoiler: indigestible food components and excrement), and gave practical tips on what to do when snails attack the lettuce in the garden.

SOSA’s focus is on discovering, protecting and building awareness for marine invertebrates – like sea snails – not on their terrestrial relatives, but often people’s first-hand experience is with animals they encounter on land. Discussions like this evening of snails, invite people in to the conversation about the beauty of invertebrate biodiversity and value they bring to human lives, while also expanding their understanding of what a snail is to include it’s ocean-dwelling cousins!