Many snails divert from a helically
coiled shell form, but some groups uncoil completely and develop worm-shaped
shells that often are cemented to the substratum. A few "worm snails" form
massive snail reefs that appear to be in global decline. As more-or-less
sessile, gill-filtering or slime-net-feeding organisms they fill unusual
niches among the gastropods and pose interesting biological questions.
How do they reproduce? How do they avoid predation? Are they
interrelated or are they the result of repeated parallel evolution?
Current research focuses on members of the three nominal families Vermetidae,
Turritellidae (genus Vermicularia), and Siliquariidae.
Publications from "Worm Snail" Research
Rawlings, T. A., Collins, T. M. & R. Bieler, 2001. A major mitochondrial gene rearrangement among closely related species. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 18(8): 1604-1609 [August].
Bieler, R., 1997. Stephopoma (Caenogastropoda: Siliquariidae) from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia. Pp. 255-280 in: Wells, F. E. (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Marine Biological Workshop: The Marine Flora and Fauna of the Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth [May].
Bieler, R., 1996. Mörch's worm-snail taxa (Caenogastropoda: Vermetidae, Siliquariidae, Turritellidae). American Malacological Bulletin, 13 (1/2): 23-35 [December].
Bieler, R., 1995. Vermetid gastropods from Sao Miguel, Azores: Comparative anatomy, systematic position and biogeographic affiliation. Açoreana Supplement 1995: 173-192 [May].
Bieler, R., 1992. Tenagodus or Siliquaria? Unraveling taxonomic confusion in marine "worm-snails" (Cerithioidea: Siliquariidae). The Nautilus, 106(1): 15-20 [27 February].
Bieler, R. & M. G. Hadfield, 1990. Reproductive biology of the sessile gastropod Vermicularia spirata (Cerithiodea: Turritellidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies, 56(2): 205-219 [May].