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Shell of rare snail found
0705 Spiny riversnail large
For the first time ever, evidence of the spiny riversnail has been found in Georiga. Previously, it has only been found in Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. - photo by Photo provided.

While working recently on a gate at a Catoosa County cave, gate builder Kristen Bobo found a relict snail shell. Georgia Wildlife Resources Division biologist Jason Wisniewski, who was helping with the project to protect bats, recognized the species as the spiny riversnail (lo fluvialis).

The spiny riversnail had not been recorded before in Georgia and is historically known only from Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. The species is not federally protected but is listed as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

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