Status: Least Concern
Snailards are the bizarre product of millions of years of isolated evolution on the Mossfell Islands. Descended from some of the first anole-like lizards to be washed up on early emerging archipealgo, fossil evidence demonstrates a gradual loss of their hind legs in favor of a sticky mucous-secreting rump which anchors them to their shell. The creatures are generally found near small bodies of freshwater in the temperate and tropical forests of the archipelago and are dependent on the discarded shells of freshwater snails from the moment of their hatching. Once they have found a home, snailards are slow-going, mainly herbivorous animals which do not move far from their hatching spot. They will spend the majority of their life in their shells, and will only emerge in order to clean themselves, to mate, or to find a larger shell to reside in.
A pamphlet by the Mossfells Conservation Trust providing a brief description of snailards.
Snailards seen in a department store. 2022