| divergent shell shape as an antipredator adaptation in tropical land snails. | although many land snails exhibit amazingly divergent shell shapes in the tropics, the functions of these remain obscure. here we show that a modified aperture shape acts as an impediment specifically to predation by a snail-eating snake. pareas iwasakii (colubridae: pareatinae) uses a unique method to feed on land snails: the snake extracts the soft body from the shell through the aperture by alternately retracting its mandibles. the snail satsuma caliginosa (camaenidae: camaeninae) has apertur ... | 2008 | 18834301 |