Tag Archives: Pulau Papan

Opisthostoma decrespignyi H. Adams

De Crespigny’s Karst Snail (Opisthostoma decrespignyi)  

This minute species, whose shell hardly reaches 0,2 cm, was described in the year 1865.  

De Crespigny’s Karst Snail inhabited small islets like Pulau Burung, Pulau Daat, and Pulau Papan offshore the island state of Labuan, which again lies offshore Borneo’s northwest coast, where it was strictly restricted to limestone rocks.  

The limestone (of all these islands ?) was removed in the 1960s by quarrying, and thus the habitat of this snail species was destroyed. [1]  

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De Crespigny’s Karst Snail is now considered possibly extinct – however, there have been no recent surveys to confirm this assumption.  

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References:  
[1] Reuben Clements; Navjot S. Sodhi; Menno Schilthuizen; Peter K. L. Ng: Limestone Karsts of Southeast Asia: Imperiled Arks of Biodiversity. BioScience 56(9): 733-742. 2006 

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Depiction from: ‘Henry Adams: Descriptions of Six New Species of Shells, and Note on Opisthostoma de-Crespignii. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 445-451. 1866’

(public domain)

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edited: 04.11.2020