A snail that was declared extinct seven years ago was rediscovered in the Indian Ocean.
The Aldabra banded snail was spotted on Aug. 23 off the island nation of Seychelles after having disappeared since 1997, the Associated Press reported.
"Could we live without this little snail? Almost certainly," Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecology professor at Duke University, told the AP. "But we simply do not know what species are going to do for us in an economic sense. Probably from the time that somebody baked the first loaf of bread, a housewife said, 'I hate bread mold and I wish it would disappear forever.' And of course we know the scientific name of bread mold is penicillin."
A research team from Seychelles Islands Foundation discovered seven of the striped snails on the Aldabra atoll's Malabar Island.
"I was so surprised; no one (on the team) had ever seen the snail before," Shane Brice, a junior skipper on the voyage told the AP. "It's quite amazing."
The finding was made after mollusk experts Vincent Florens and Pat Matyot analyzed the discovery team's photos from their expedition and confirmed the presence of the purple-and-pink striped snails.
The coral island Aldabra atoll grew atop an extinct volcano in the Indian Ocean. The habitat is also home to the largest population of giant tortoises in the world. The snail's population is believed to have declined declining rainfall in the region as a result of global warming.
The snail's population took a serious hit between the years of 1970 and 1990, the AP reported. The last time a juvenile snail was spotted was back in 1976, but some of the recently spotted organisms are believed to be of the younger bracket. This is encouraging because juveniles are thought to be especially vulnerable to dry conditions.
"Only time will tell if they can survive the threats of climate change and sea level rise," biologist Justin Gerlach, a scientific coordinator for the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles told the AP.
