Albert: The First of a Million Molluscs

This is Albert, an adult Helix aspera. Snail fans out there will know H.aspera as the edible snail. Snail haters will know it as the pest garden snail. I know him as Albert, the snail who lives with me.

I ruminated for a while on which mollusc should be the first to get its mug on this blog. Which species deserves to be the face to launch this new initiative to bring molluscs and vertebrates that bit closer together? A rainbow-like Nudibranch? A jolly Mussel on its way into the pot? An impossibly small micromollusc? A gargantuan Giant Squid? A truculent Chiton? All are cool creatures, all would be great but there is a lot to be said for welcoming folk in with a familiar face.
Albert will appear again in time, sandwiched between cephalopods and bivalves, the bright, the bizarre and the beautiful.