iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A crazy week: meeting new students & organising teaching for the new term, taking up my new role as Admissions Tutor @peterhousecam.bsky.social, fielding press enquiries for a paper coming out tonight (teaser photo), planning the next round of Partula reintroductions and its only Wednesday! 🐢🐌🌍

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Final field day for this years Partula snail reintroductions. Checking up on the nodosa we released last week. All good, thanks to great work from the environment team on Tahiti and the zoos that coordinated sending the snails here @zslofficial.bsky.social @saintlouiszoo.bsky.social and Schwerin Zoo

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Now that the rest of the ZSL team have left today I did the last of the releases, in particularly challenging sites. Also some monitoring of the Moorean releases: all looking great in the rain

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yesterday was a check-up on snails released on Raiatea last week. All very positive. Partula always do the unexpected, especially when you are confident you know what to expect. Released ground-living P navigatoria found 4 m up trees. Thats great as ground releases are risky with predatory flatworms

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

An exhausting but very productive day: climbing Mt Marau and finding interesting rare snail species: Partula otaheitana which is Critically Endangered, P. cytherea which hasn't been seen alive since 1930, and one that I can't identify at the moment. 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Now back on Tahiti. Progress on Moorea was reasonable; the higlight being discovering a previously unknown population of the Critically Endangered Partula taeniata.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Radio-tracking Partula snails does work! They have not had time to go very far, so the real test will be next week. This is encouraging for snail conservation so far.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Partula reintroductions continue: three species returned to Raiatea yesterday, and more releases of Partula nodosa on Tahiti today🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

2026 Partula reintroductions are underway. Today we tried something new: release of radio-tagged Partula tohiveana, bred at Schwerin Zoo. The tiny tags made by @celltracktech.bsky.social make it possible, but we wont know for a few days if they help us solve the mystery of Partula dispersal

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

We are delighted that our Partula snails are part of this fantastic initiative (phoenixspeciesproject.org/species/poly...) 🐌🌏

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

A visit to @zslofficial.bsky.social to discuss Partula snail Green Listing and conservation priorities with some time to look around. The colobus monkeys in the Snowdon Aviary were keeping dry indoors but the ring-tails were more obliging

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

My latest paper just published 🐌🌏

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

We've reached a bright point in this turbulent year: Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday. A wonderful inspiration. Very many years ago I had a tortoise conservation project for which he agreed to be patron. Here we are at its launch, both somewhat younger!

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

This year's issue of Tentacle now out with lots of interesting mollusc conservation news, including our report on Partula conservation in 2025 (and one of our released Partula suturalis on the cover) www.hawaii.edu/cowielab/Ten... 🐌🌏

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The 'Uproar Conservation Challenge' allocates funding for selected species. Its live for voting - do make sure you vote for the Partula tohiveana snail! www.indianapoliszoo.com/uproar-conse...

indianapoliszoo.com

Uproar Conservation Challenge

Help vote to save endangered species with the Uproar Conservation Challenge. Each round a species moves on to compete for the big prize!

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

As the end of the teaching term comes into sight thoughts start turning to research. Here I've got the extraordinarily small tags for radio-tracking Partula snails later in the year 🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

New York Times article on our successful re-establishment of Partula tohiveana. 'Darwin's finches of the snail world' is a good description www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/s... 🌏🐌

nytimes.com

Slowly, Slowly, ‘Darwin’s Finches of the Snail World’ Return From Near Extinction

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

That was rather a long day! A full day's teaching and then in the evening an online login for the launch in Tahiti of our new book on the history of Partula shell cultural artefacts. It's been a very interesting project delving into a different aspect of these endangered species. 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

P Collins – Beyond bats: anatomical correlates of echolocation A dos Santos – Ultrastructure of nuclear protein complexes in spermatogenesis and fertility L Fricker – Genetic dissection of the PHO2 gene in common symbiosis signalling pathways (CSSP) during arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis with rice

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

S Macuda – The development of electrosensory lateral line organs in teleost fishes: insights into the evolution of novel cell types W Robertson – E. coli with a 57-codon genetic code F Fang – The edge effect on soil invertebrate communities in tropical secondary forests ...

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

J Gerlach (Fellow) – How to save a species in one easy step (and some tougher cases) J McCulloch – How many centromeres does it take to rearrange a chromosome? Explaining extraordinary rearrangement rates in sedges and rushes P Yakushev – Movement ecology of turtles continued...

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

A great Peterhouse Biology Symposium yesterday: excellent talks and such interesting topics. Thanks to all participants (and attendees). list of talks below...

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Reposted by Justin Gerlach

Oryx @oryxthejournal.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

🐌Justin Gerlach's blog post traces the remarkable journey of Partula conservation from the near‑total collapse of wild populations in the 1970s, following the introduction of the predatory rosy wolf snail, to successful reintroduction efforts.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Intriguing that there may be hidden diversity in the invasive terrestrial ribbon worm Geonemertes pelaensis, also good to see some dietary data. It is an active predator of tiny snails, records of arthropods could be carrion feeding

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Just published: our paper on 'Re-establishment of Partula tohiveana tree snails in French Polynesia after 40 years of extinction in the wild'. Great results from 2024 that we built on last year, high hopes for other species this year. Oryx - bit.ly/4sCbk6O

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Do you have any information on when the use started? In French Polynesia it turns out to be much more recent than we thought (first evidence from mid-1800s).

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Geonemertes pelaensis, one of few terrestrial ribbon worms. Maybe s-e Asian originally; spreading from early 1900s, but only relatively recently becoming pretty much pantropical (on islands at least). I've always been interested in the odd little predators & decades ago wrote a paper on keeping them

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Only partly done but this brings @peterhousecam.bsky.social's animal species list to over 1,000 species! The milestone species was the 'dry bark beetle' Anommatus rieckei - very odd blind beetle not recognised in the British fauna until 2021 (because it is very similar to two other tiny species)

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Now that our undergraduate teaching term is over and I've finished interviewing for next year's intake, I've been able to get back to identifying the invertebrates collected in the colleges biodiversity surveys earlier in the year. I'd forgotten how much material there was still to identify!

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Good to see an interesting species record published from @peterhousecam.bsky.social gardens

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

I've been too busy teaching to look at this in detail, but I did recently get the first results from the samples collected @peterhousecam.bsky.social as our contribution to BIOSCAN insect monitoring. That's helped push the number of animal species recorded in the gardens to almost 1000

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

My latest paper has just been published in PeerJ; working on this one was a really fun puzzle to solve. We identify an extinct predator on Mauritius from the holes it left in shells of its prey. Mauritian snail shells show evidence of extinct predators peerj.com/articles/201... @peerj.bsky.social

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

As we approach the beginning of the new academic year this year's @peterhousecam.bsky.social Biology Newsletter is now out islandbiodiversity.com/petnewslette...

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Partula reintroduction comes to an end for 2025 with a final monitoring in lovely Papehue valley on Tahiti. Nothing startling today but lots of newborn snails is encouraging. I really hope we can show success with Partula nodosa next year. 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

When sorting the shells we found I discovered this: Partula mooreana (first release last year); middle 3 new dead from this year, right one from last year (first evidence of survival for a year). On left unmarked shell of a wild born. Amazing to be so close to population establishment so soon.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Final monitoring on Moorea, and what a day. A good start in the reserve at Fare Natura. Then we found wild-born adult Partula taeniata simulans. I was confident we could do that, so a pleasing find, but... 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Last field survey on Tahiti today: the southern point of Te Pari. Nothing unusual but good populations of Partula hyalina marmorata. The sort of patchy metapopulations we found are probably natural for this species (one of few partulids not to be Critically Endangered or Extinct) 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Today was a search for high altitude snails on Mt Aorai. Finding snails in this environment isn't easy. We did find some Critically endangered Samoana diaphana. The shell is extremely thin and translucent (hence 'diaphana'), the distinctive pattern is on the body inside the shell 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Some encouraging signs for Partula nodosa and affinis today; many released animals found again and many births. We also scouted out possible additional release sites for next year.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Partula are always unexpected. Today we visited a relict population of Partula hyalina and Samoana attenuata. What we didn't expect was to find hyalina eating another snail species. There was a carnivorous Partula in the past, but we've never document predation by hyalina before.

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Today was monitoring day on Huahine island and the last day for most of the team. What a day for a big find! Great results from the releases, but even better was finding this tiny one- the first wild-born Partula on Huahine for 31 years. Another great vindication of everyone's hard work 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Today was the last Partula snail reintroduction of the year: Huahine island with more varia and the first rosea to be released since 2019

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

2nd day of monitoring on Moorea; still great progress with good dispersal and very little mortality despite us finding several of the predatory Euglandina. They may be invasive monsters but I still have a soft spot for their elegance (a picture of one instead of Partula for once)

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

The great find of the day was this wild-born Partula tohiveana away from the release site - so we had population establishment last year and now range expansion. I couldn't ask for better results without being greedy!

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

First day of monitoring the released snails on Moorea. Exceptionally good results, for most species there was no mortality at all despite a night of unbelievably heavy rain - not what the zoo snails are used to at all. The snails in the reserve look fantastic

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Yesterday was a busy day for Partula conservation. As well as a full day of releases of snails back into the forest on Moorea we had the opening and stocking of the new reserve at Fare Natura. Fantastic to see that go from my wild idea exactly two years ago to this

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

On Raiatea today reintroducing Partula navigatoria descended from the last wild snails I collected in 1991. This was supposed to happen back in 2020. We also found an excellent site for Partula hebe next year (hopefully) 🌏🐌

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Justin Gerlach @jstgerlach.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Partula releases today: we are trying a new monitoring technique with Partula nodosa using RFID tags. We also visited Tiapa valley to look for Partula incrassa but without success; that's often the way with Partula field research.

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