Abalone shells hold secrets to their evolution

Shells of abalone snails have long been admired for their beautiful iridescent mother-of-pearl lining. But researcher, Nur Syahirah Mamat, is fascinated by their shells for a completely different reason!

Abalone is the name used for any marine snail in the family Haliotidae, including over 57 accepted species! These snails generally have a low-spiraled shell with a line of distinct holes (respiratory pores) along the outer edge. You can find abalone snails world-wide at depths up to 30 m, including in tropical coral reefs as well as Arctic waters. Abalones have been a sought-after snail by humans for quite some time. Not only are they eaten as a nutritious food source, but their shells are also highly valued for ornamental uses. One of these abalone-seekers, PhD student Nur Syahirah Mamat, has a much more scientific reason behind her snail search.

Nur Syahirah Mamat is a PhD student in Aquatic Biotechnology at Universiti Putra Malaysia and a recent Senckenberg Nature Research Global fellow. Syahirah’s research on the abalone aims to shed light on how the shell shape of different abalone species helps us better understand this family’s evolution. Syahirah’s research started in Malaysia, where there is an ample abalone population, then brought her to Germany (in Frankfurt and Berlin) to access scientific collections and expand her research to include all abalone species.?

To reveal the sometimes-subtle differences in shell shape of abalone species, Syahirah needed to thoroughly understand and analyze the shells of the different species. To do this, she tapped into Senckenberg’s extensive mollusc collection. She sorted the shells by species, then labeled and arranged all the abalone shells in the collection. Then, a representative shell of each different species was chosen to be scanned using a Micro-CT scanner, which is like an x-ray machine that creates 3D images of small objects. Syahirah scanned 42 abalone shells in the micro-CT scanner, three were too big for the machine, so they had to be scanned in a human evolution scanner! From these scans, she made 3D models and mapped key features, or landmarks, on the inside of each shell. When comparing these landmarks across the different species, Syahirah could identify important variations in the shell shapes.

Syahirah’s study is the first comparative study on abalone taxonomy covering both tropical and temperate regions. The variations she found in shell shape help researchers understand the evolutionary constraints within this family of sea snails. The next step in this research is to group the different abalone species according to shell shape and then look at different variables that might be able to explain these shell-shifts. These could include a combination of ecological and environmental factors like habitat, diet, geography and wave currents, reflecting adaptations to specific ecological niches.

For Syahirah, the next step in her abalone journey also involves continuing to work with sustainable fishing and aquaculture organizations in Malaysia to protect her beloved abalone species.

Check out the gallery below and some of Nur Syahirah Mamat’s research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nur-Syahirah-Mamat?ev=hdr_xprf