Searching for Tiny Dot Snails in Nullarbor Caves
Punctid land snails (family Punctidae), commonly known as dot snails, are tiny, often just one to two millimetres across, and easily overlooked. Yet these micro snails find sheltered habitats in the entrances of limestone caves and sinkholes across the Nullarbor.
At first glance, the Nullarbor Plain may not seem like promising ground for snail collecting, but its honeycomb of limestone caves provides suitable habitat. Snails often have a strong association with limestone, and our surveys across twenty caves and sinkholes revealed live snails at every site, including several potentially undescribed species.
At Ancient Land Tours, we had no prior experience with land snails, but we know the Nullarbor intimately. Barry Coleman and I guided Dr Isabel Hyman and Dr Frank Köhler from the Australian Museum to remote cave systems.
Some entrances were too technical or hazardous for the scientists to access directly. After a short period of training in identifying and collecting snails, I descended the deeper, more challenging entrances on their behalf to obtain specimens for the project.
Read Dr Isabel Hyman’s account on the Australian Museum website: Collecting Australia’s smallest snails: a punctid dot-to-dot across southern Australia.
Planning scientific fieldwork in the region? Learn more about Ancient Land Tours’ research and specialist field support on the Nullarbor and in Far West South Australia.