Rare snail at Sentosa

Today I was out at Sentosa with a small group of friends from NIE. We are there for our field trip project for a Biology class. I'm quite exhausted today, so will only blog the exciting find first.

As usual, I was flipping rocks to look for creatures underneath and I saw a number of the usual cowries.


It was until later that I flipped yet another rock and found this cowrie-looking snail. At first glance when it was out of water with its mantle fully covered, I really thought it was a cowrie.

I submerged this snail to have a better look and was surprised to have a glimpse that the hard shell within is totally white with lines. Like conches, this snail has eye stalks with a tentacle beneath. The snail is very beautiful.


Taking a look at its underside, we can see it has an extended transulent looking foot in additon to its mantle. It was attempting to turn the right side up in this photo.


And with more action to try and turn over, its foot was revealed to be quite long!


I took a closer check at the white inner shell and this is its underside.


While the top of the white shell looks clean and neat with fine regular transverse ribbing. It looks some what like a bivalve from this photo alone. Haha.

Back at home, James helped to find the id of this snail at the The Singapore Red Data Book. It is Trivirostra oryza (Family Triviidae), listed as endangered in Singapore.

The author in the book mentioned that they are found in coral reef and are under rocks. They hunt actively at night. It is a close relative to the cowrie and has not been seen since 1970s.

I think it's great to know it is still surviving. Will blog more about the day's trip when I find the time.