Mission under way to save 'world's most beautiful' snails

Researchers in Cuba and the UK are working together to reveal the biological secrets of the beautiful but endangered Polymita snail.

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Endangered Polymita tree snails, which are disappearing from their native forest habitats in Eastern Cuba, have vibrant, colourful and extravagantly patterned shells.

Unfortunately, those shells are desirable for collectors, and conservation experts say the shell trade is pushing the snails towards extinction.

Biologists in Cuba, and specialists at the University of Nottingham in the UK, have now teamed up with the goal of saving the six known species of Polymita.

The most endangered of those is Polymita sulphurosa, which is lime green with blue flame patterns around its coils and bright orange and yellow bands across its shell.