Snail Way

Weeee. That's the sound a snail makes when it's riding on the back of a turtle.When they're not riding turtles, snails produce a little mucus trail as they creep along the ground. Well, according to [research:study] just published in the Proceedings of the Royal SocietyBiological Sciences, snails also ride along on, we, pre-existing mucus trails left by other snails. It's like a snail superhighway. Okay, a snail highway. Okay, a snail way.The research involved marine snails, but [probably:approximetly] applies to all snails, which may expend a third of all their energy producing mucus. So an obvious benefit is that individual snails can save energy that would otherwise go into cutting fresh trails.Snail experts had thought this was the case, but the new study proves it. And it wasn't easy - the researchers actually [measured:calculated] the thickness of snail trails. A new trail could [accommodate:fit] a [traveler:second-person] without additional mucus. But [weathered:either] trails got thicker, as snails added a bit of mucus where necessary.