Dear people of the list,
   Thank-you so much for sharing your thoughts and theories on this
matter...  You have given me and my friend much to think about and we
appreciate that you took your time for this!!  Personally, I am thinking
that I would like to give the snail a little "help" just in case he might
feel more than we realize..  It can't hurt, but it is good to hope that they
might not feel much at all...
                                      Thanks again from sunny Florida,
                                                           LaVerne


>From: "J. Ross Mayhew" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Conchologists List <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Invertebrate awareness (was "Shells have feelings too....."
>Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:54:13 -0400
>
>As Paul has pointed out, it seems unlikely that most molluscs, with
>their *extremely* limited brain-power,  experience any more than the
>faintest inklings of awareness or "pain". That said, Octopi and squid
>are most assuredly capable of experiencing MUCH more, both
>quantitatively and qualitatively, than a scallop or Thais - they are
>alert, surprisingly intelligent beings capable of learning more than
>most folks realize, and solving problems the average poodle would find
>daunting.  Therefore, i think it safe to say that the topic of what, and
>how much invertebrates in general or molluscs in particular "feel" or
>are aware of, is a relative one that applies even to the "lower" levels
>in question - a filter-feeding Mytilus certainly doesn't have any
>"feelings" in the way we usually define them, while i am not sure the
>same thing could be said for something like a fish-eating Conus or other
>advanced invertebrate predator: on one end of the "invertebrate
>spectrum", the more active Cephalopods are clearly "aware" on some
>level, and more likely to experience things such as "pain", while a
>filter feeder would indeed be closer to an amoeba in these respects -
>but can we categorically say that all the organisms inbetween these two
>extremes are completely and absoloutely unaware and incapable of
>exeriencing something approaching what we as humans would term "pain?
>(and if that ramble seemed a tad garbled, please forgive - i just pulled
>an "all-nighter": something which just **doesn't** seem to get any
>easier as one grows older......).
>
>From the Great Wet North on a true Spring day,
>Ross mayhew.
>
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