Quantitative measures and 3D shell models reveal interactions between bands and their position on growing snail shells.

ABSTRACT: The nature of shell growth in gastropods is useful because it preserves the ontogeny of shape, colour, and banding patterns, making them an ideal system for understanding how inherited variation develops, is established and maintained within a population. However, qualitative scoring of inherited shell characters means there is a lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms that control fine variation. Here, we combine empirical measures of quantitative variation and 3D modeling of shells to understand how bands are placed and interact. By comparing five-banded Cepaea individuals to shells lacking individual bands, we show that individual band absence has minor but significant impacts upon the position of remaining bands, implying that the locus controlling band presence/absence mainl

SUBMITTER: Jackson HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8207382 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature