Adaptation by Mark Ekiss
Notice the hardwood trees and rock talus slopes where the species has been known to reside.
Little is know about specific adaptations I. verus has made in response to its environment and habitat, but Polygyridae and gastropods in general have overcome tremendous evolutionary boundaries, which is one reason why they are so successful today. Early snail and mollusk fossils have been found that date all the way back to the Cambrian period, over 570 million years ago (Hickman et al. 2009). Since then snails and other gastropods have formed specific adaptations to ensure their success, one of the most important being the vacularization of their mantle wall to function similar to a lung (Hickman et al. 2009). For the first time, this meant that gastropods could move from an aquatic environment, losing their gills, to a terrestrial one. The development a pneumostome, which is the opening to the lung, and their pulmonate, air-breathing ways (from the contraction of their mantle floor to fill their lungs with air) also helped their transition to becoming a terrestrial species (Hickman et al. 2009). I. verus also has a radula, which aids in their mostly herbaceous diet of macerating algae for extracellular digestion. I. verus possess a muscular foot, which they most likely use for locomotion and gas exchange. Lastly, because of being in the order Stylommatophora, it is known that they have eyes at the tip of their tentacles connected to their cerebral ganglion (Hickman et al. 2009). However, they are not the well-developed eyes due to the nocturnal nature of most gastropods (Hickman et al. 2009).
Adapting to their environment seemed pretty neat, now lets see their Nutrition habits!