Unlike smaller snails, the dire snail is capable of moving in this manner quickly, but that might simply be due to its size.ĭire snails secrete mucus externally to keep their soft bodies from drying out. This motion is powered by succeeding waves of muscular contractions that move down the ventral of the foot. Snails move by gliding along on their muscular foot, which is lubricated with mucus and covered with small protrusions approximating epithelial cilia, but of course, in the case of dire snails, these pseudopods are much larger. The research team theorized that the filament would provide a moment of rigidity to the tentacle, as the tendons and muscles around it and the poison gland contracted, allowing the snail to shoot, or inject, hydrochloric acid at or into its prey. In theory, a dire snail could therefore stab a creature with their tentacles, while secreting a burst of hydrochloric acid, explaining not only one of the most perplexing injuries in the LARP encounter (an acid burn to the hand,) but also, many medieval doodles of dire snails "jousting" with their tentacles. This result, plus an analysis of the chemical residue, led the researchers at the University of Paris to conclude that this poison gland contains hydrochloric acid. An attempt to drain the poison to examine it resulted in the melting of all the sampling equipment. However, the tentacles of the dire snail specimen also contained rigid, filament-like structures in a coil at their base, along with a set of tendons, tightly wound like a spring, and a large poison gland. Vision is usually poor but important to snail navigation. The upper, longer tentacles contain the eyestalks and the lower ones the scent and taste organs. On most mollusc species, these are sense organs only. They are pulminates, meaning they have a lung, not gills.Ī unique feature of the dire snail is the deadly poison glands in its "antennae," which are in fact tentacles. The specimen killed by the LARPers was badly damaged, but examination indicates that dire snails share similar morphology with more familiar, smaller snails, just in gargantuan proportions.ĭire snails appear to be a unique type of land snail significant because most snail species are marine snails. The LARPers have named these creatures "dire snails," and the name has stuck. One encounter, which took place in France at an annual LARPing event, resulted in three casualties, including one fatality. Giant snails have been sighted in the past few months in the former Protectorate of The Missing House, one of many legendary and mythological creatures that have begun to show credible sightings as Literomancy grows in power and prevalence. It was generally assumed, however, that the many depictions of armoured knights fighting giant snails was nothing more than an entertaining flght of fantasy. For instance, the prevalance of violent rabbits in medieval manuscript marginalia has, of late, been attributed to anti- Owsla propaganda on the part of Inquisition-sympathizers. Recent events, including the return of magic with the reawakening of The Iron Tome, have suggested that this may have been mistaken. The prevailing theory was that it was something like "Kilroy was here " the equivalent of restroom graffiti, a medieval scribe's in-joke. Thanks to io9.com and reddit for the heads up.Medievalist scholars have long been aware that illuminators of medieval manuscripts liked to doodle in the margins. To see more images, go to the Medieval Manuscripts blog at the British Library. I’m not saying knights battled giant snails in medieval Europe. Maybe the monks just really hated snails, but then why do the knights always look so worried? Here’s a tip – if you don’t know what something represents, sex is always a good guess. Some people have proposed that the snails are references to biblical passages, or political groups, or sex. Perhaps its a weird joke – the knight finally facing an equally-armored foe – or maybe it’s a metaphor. Do you know why the knight is fighting a snail? Because if you read enough 14th century literature this image turns up everywhere. And nobody knows why. Such manuscripts were written by monks (who, other than nobles and clergy, were really the only ones that could even read after all) and usually included some sort of doodle or artwork in the margins. But some are pretty strange. This is a doodle from a medieval manuscript. Image from the Gorleston Psalter (14th Century)
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