This Friday, the beach Sunset of Santa Clara del Mar woke up full of soft ovicápsules with black snails ready to emerge. Although the phenomenon occurs during the spring-summer season, the good weather recorded during the month of March made it possible for the process to extend over time.
As detailed to 0223 from the Coastal and Quaternary Geology Center of the National University of Mar del Plata The phenomenon that surprised the people of Santa Clara is none other than the reproductive cycle of the Adelomelon brasiliana, a species commonly known as the black snail.
This species is found on fossil beaches up to 5000 years before present. “Ovicapsules are not preserved because they are soft,” he said.
After the male and female mate and fertilization occurs, the female black snail molds, with her foot and outside her body, an ovigerous or ovigerous capsule five to seven centimeters in diameter of a translucent and flexible material. .
Inside the ovacapsule there is a nourishing liquid and between nine to 33 fertilized eggs are deposited and will develop into embryos. This process occurs mainly in spring and summer. In some cases it is possible to see juveniles on the beach about to emerge from the capsule.
The black snail measures up to about 16 centimeters and can live up to 20 years. It is recognizable by a thick dark organic layer. It is the only species that makes a capsule not attached to another object, which favors its dispersion by currents and includes so much nutritive liquid within it.
The black snail is carnivorous. It feeds on bivalve mollusks such as the purple clam Amiantis purpurata, one of the most common on the beaches of the South Atlantic.
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