Do not buy this kind of snail crafts, they may be national protection animals

If you go to the market on weekends, you will definitely see many small stalls selling crafts. In a variety of products, you will definitely see exquisite crafts made of snails. In fact, the snail is made into decorations or crafts since ancient times. In China, we use "snails" to describe such decorative processes, referring to thin slices such as mussel slices, shells or sea shells, and thin slices such as characters, flowers, birds, or text, and inlaid on the surface of the utensil according to the needs of the screen. Poet Liu Yingbin used "snail makeup into emerald light" to describe the process of snails.

Rosewood embedded snails plum bamboo picture pen holder (picture source: Forbidden City Museum)

Why do people choose snails? What charm does it have? What impact will it have on the natural environment if you do not choose the beauty of snails?

1. Software of the various poses

The snails can become a craft, which is due to the rich species and various shapes of the software animal. Software animals are the second largest animal category in the animal world except for nodular animals, and one of the richest and diverse categories of marine animals.

Conch on the beach (picture source: Veer gallery)

The uniqueness of software animals is that its body mode is extremely varied. Only the shape you can't think of, without the "Pose" that the software can not be put on. The mystery is a gene called HOX, which plays an important role in the body structure of software animals. The HOX gene is the key gene of animal development. It is more conservative in other animals, and the expression patterns in software animals are very diverse.

However, not all snails can be made into crafts. Even though these snails are beautiful, their ecological value is much higher than the ornamental value.

Second, beauty and strength coexist them

In the biology, the night -light snail belongs to the species under the belly of the abdominal foot gang scuffles. Its shell can reach 20 cm long and weighs 2 kg, distributed in coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The southern end of Hainan Island in my country, the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands, and Tainan are also distributed.

Image source: veer gallery

Japanese folk saying: "The fist of the snail, the hands of the white fish", which means that the man's fist is as sturdy as a snail, and the woman's hands are gentle and slender like white fish (of course, this is just an ancient aesthetic, the author thinks about no matter what Health is the most important).漂 snails have beautiful mouth cover, the inside of the mouth cover is smooth keratin, and there is a natural beauty.

The luminous snail is not glowed under darkness, because the snail shell has a pearl layer with gorgeous luster in the snail shell. The surface of the luminous snail is dark green, with brown, white, or red ring lines. Night -luminous snail shape is large, and the shell surface can also be painted with a variety of tricks, while the inner pearl is thick. Therefore, since ancient times, it is a beautiful ornamental product and crafts, which has become an important raw material for making snails.

Like the night light 蝾 snails, 蝾 is also very descendant.汉 A man who started in the Han Dynasty was also known as the car canal. It was named because its shell has a groove, which is like a rut.

经 In Chinese history, it was shined. According to the "Biography of Shangshu" in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "San Yisheng once presented the king of businessmen and successfully rescued Zhou Wenwang." The king of savings from the camp shows its value. The beads worn by the Erpin officials of the Qing Dynasty were made of 砗磲.

The so -called cricket is the collective name of multiple species under the belonging to the family of software animal curtains. Ya Yako is divided into genus and 砗 oysters. Among them, there are 9 different species.

双 is the world's largest double shell shell, 1.02 meters long and 300 kg. The shell of the 色 is white, with a coat and symbiotic algae, showing colorful. It is mainly distributed in the shallow water environment of the coral reef system of the Tropical Pacific-Indian Ocean. The depth of water generally does not exceed 30 meters, mostly 2-5 meters.

用 is also an ancient reuse meteorological observation station, which can faithfully record the evolution of the climate. This is mainly due to the long life of 命, which can live 50-100 years, which means that a single 砗磲 can provide a climate or weather record of 50-100 years;

Like trees, once the coral reef is fixed, it will not move for a lifetime. This is similar to fixed meteorological stations, which can also record the reasons for the weather. On the contrary, if you keep moving, it is difficult to record the weather changes in a certain place; the symbiosis of the collaboration with the insect Huang Zao is the key to recording the weather.上 On the surface of the coat, there are insect yellow algae on the surface of the 上, and the insect yellow algae provides energy for 砗磲.

The photosynthesis of insects is more sensitive to weather changes. As soon as the weather changes, its photosynthesis efficiency will change, which will directly cause the growth rate of the 砗磲 to change. The growth rate of 可以 can be reflected from the tattoo layer on the cross section. This tattoo is a "annual wheel", because the growth rate is different, and its carbonate shows different optical characteristics.

Through the annual tattoo layer, we can know the weather changes experienced in the life. With the help of modern isotope technology, we can divide another one year into 12 months and obtain the average temperature and climate change in the total length of the total length of 50-100 years.

3. Conch, which is being threatened

The abdominal feet (snails) represented by luminous snails and 代 are an important part of the aquatic ecosystem -free vertebrate, which can have a great impact on the marine ecosystem. They directly eat plants, algae, and organic debris, and they are also reuse in the marine food network. However, due to climate change, the rise of water temperature and ocean acidification have caused pressure on these ecosystems. These conch have become one of the first animals that have been killed, and the positives are affected by various impacts brought about by the changes in the ocean. Because many of these snails are coexisting with algae, algae are more sensitive to changes in the environment. In addition, fishing, mixed catching, and marine pollution brought by human activities have also affected the survival of these marine creatures.

Ocean fishing threat conch survival (picture source: VEER gallery)

At present, the luminous snails are included in the national second -level protection wildlife list, and all species of the family members are included in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Nature Protection Alliance". biology. For the earth, it is urgent to protect these marine software animals!

Produced: Popular Science China

Author: Zhao Xumao (Lanzhou University)

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

The China Science Popularization Expo is the Science Popular Science Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Relying on the high -end scientific resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is committed to spreading cutting -edge scientific knowledge and providing fun science and education services.

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