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Rhachistia aldabrae Martens, 1898

Aldabra banded snail

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Rachistia aldabrae Martens, 1898 [orth. error used by Régnier et al., 2009]

 

Conservation Status

Last record: 1997 (Gerlach, 2007)

Rediscovered on: 23 August 2014 (Battarbee, 2014)

IUCN RedList status: Extinct

 

The reported decline and subsequent disappearance of the species has been reported to be due to climate change (Gerlach, 2007). But the declaration of the species' extinction was viewed as premature by some (Hambler et al., 2007), and it was subsequently rediscovered (Battarbee, 2014). A new preprint also questions the cause of the species original decline (Altaba, 2022).

 

Table 1. Conservation status (historically).

Year Status Notes Reference
2007 Extinct Due to climate change  Gerlach, 2007 
2009 Extinct Source: Gerlach, 2007 Régnier et al., 2009
2014 Extant; rediscovered   Battarbee, 2014
2017 Extant   Cowie et al., 2017

 

 

Distribution

Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles

 

Biology & Ecology

 

 

Hypodigm

 

 

Media

 

 

References

Altaba, Cristian R. (2022). Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands. Preprints 2022100315 (https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v1).

Battarbee, Richard W. (2014). The rediscovery of the Aldabra banded snail, Rhachistia aldabrae. Biology Letters 10:  20140771. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0771

Commentary by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com (August 12, 2007). Climate change claims a snail. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0813-snail.html

Cowie, Robert H., Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît, and Bouchet, Philippe. (2017). Measuring the Sixth Extinction: what do mollusks tell us? The Nautilus 131(1): 3-41.

Fisher, Diana O. and Humphreys, Aelys M. (2024). Evidence for modern extinction in plants and animals. Biological Conservation 298: 110772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110772

Fryer, J. C. F. (1911). The structure and formation of Aldabra and neighbouring islands—with notes on their flora and fauna. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. Ser. 2: Zool 14: 401-442.

Gerlach, Justin. (2006). Terrestrial and freshwater Mollusca of the Seychelles Islands. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys Publishers.

Gerlach, Justin. (2007). Short-term climate change and the extinction of the snail Rachistia aldabrae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Biology Letters 3: 581-585.

Gerlach, Justin. (2009). Rhachistia aldabrae. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 01 June 2013.

Gerlach, Justin. (2012). Red Listing reveals the true state of biodiversity: a comprehensive assessment of Seychelles biodiversity. Phelsuma 20: 9-22.

Hambler, Clive et al. (2007). “Extinction” of Rhachistia aldabrae contested. Unpublished manuscript. [automatic download]

Holmes, Branden. (2021). What's Lost and What Remains: The Sixth Extinction in 100 Accounts (eBook). Self published.

Régnier, Claire, Fontaine, Benoît and Bouchet, Philippe. (2009). Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions. Conservation Biology 23(5): 1214-1221.

Thompson, C. J., S. Kodikara, M. A. Burgman, H. Demirhan, and L. Stone. 2020. Using survival theory models to quantify extinctions. Biological Conservation 241.

http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/1256/Living+to+fight+another+day++extinct+Aldabra+snail+re-discovered+in+Seychelles

http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/8818/+snails+endemic+to+Seychelles?disable_mobile=true

http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/18727/rhachistia-aldabrae

 

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