pictures of snails

Sometime in June, the Chemnitz church took this summer's OC Campaign Group on an outing to Kriebstein to view one of Saxony's many castles (pictures available on request). We walked through forest to get there, and on the way back to the cars, Vanessa and I picked up the following friends:

These are helix pomatia, aka Burgundy snails. They're extremely common here in Germany, and I had one as a pet when I was a kid (along with a plethora of smaller type snails). So Van and I decided we needed to reintroduce these snails as pets in my household. One belongs to Van and one belongs to me, but I'm official custodian of both.

Almost as soon as I got them situated in their new home, the snails mated. I took pictures of that, too, but didn't want to put anything X-rated on my blog. (But if there's demand for these raunchy pictures, I will supply, of course!)  ;o) A week or so later, one of them (snails are hermaphrodites, so I can't exactly say "the female...") dug a hole in the dirt and laid eggs; a few weeks after that, the eggs hatched and we had tiny baby snails; and now, finally, after about 5 weeks since the egg-laying, the baby snails are digging their way out of the dirt. Here are a few that have already emerged:

For a size comparison: The babies are creeping across a slice of cucumber; they are about 20 times as small as the adults! Look closely, and you can see the veins and tiny organs through their still-transparent shells.

I know I'm gonna be called "weird" for this... Ah well, so be it. ;o) I think they're adorable (especially the babies!), and they are fascinating to watch. For those of you with kids: I can attest to the fact that these snails make great pets for teaching kids about some of the smaller wonders that God has designed into this amazingly complex planet we live on. There are even mathematical formulas that govern the helical shape of snail shells. Yet another tiny bit of evidence speaking for the design in everything natural.