Richard Preece
Richard Preece
instance recently relatively returned seems species time
One of the species on the Azores returned to Europe. It seems that having got there in the first instance a very long time ago, it relatively recently migrated back to Europe.
atlantic quite south traveling
Traveling to the South Atlantic is quite problematic for a very pedestrian snail.
birds blown course storm suspect together trying tucked type
Trying to get one of those birds and the snails together is problematic. So I suspect that some type of wading bird, with a cargo of stowaway snails tucked into its feathers, was blown off course by a storm and deposited the snails on these islands.
darwin die feet found quickly stuck submerged
Darwin stuck snails on ducks' feet and submerged them in seawater and found them to die quickly on exposure.
gotten sort
It must have gotten there, we think, on some sort of migrating bird.
clearly events happened human humans
This clearly has nothing to do with human agency. These dispersal events happened long before humans were around.
carried prone trees
I think because they live in trees and are particularly sticky, they're prone to being carried by birds.
disperse distances enormous land normally rather rides slow
Land snails, which we normally think of as being rather slow moving, can actually disperse enormous distances by hitching rides on birds.