Not-quite-swimming Snail

I love to see ambition in a snail! Let's face it, when you spend AGES slowly sliming your way around on a giant, sticky foot, you've got room for new ideas.

We've already seen that some slugs and snails have taken to the pelagic life, swimming through the ocean far above the sea floor where their kith and kin ooze at a pace scarcely faster than an upturned bucket of their own mucus.

Others are still on the foothills of such adventurous feats. After all, you need to walk before you can run! Or not-quite-swim before you can swim.

Video: liquidguru

It's a snail! With a gigantic, flattened foot that allows her to sort of... jump. It looks like a young bird learning to fly; awkward, silly and heart-warming.

It's a start. It even looks like her shell has become a little thinner and lighter so it doesn't weigh her down so much. Hopefully her descendants will take up the baton. If they can find a way to catch food in the open ocean, we may one day welcome a new member to the pelagic gastropod community.