Richard Preece
Richard Preece
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.
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.
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.