My experience is not with freshwater snails, or with Egyptian relics,
but with mundane Littorina ziczac. We found a colony of them at Cape San
Blas FL years ago, and picked up all the dead shells we could find from
the base of the old pier pylon where they were living. They went into
ziplocks in the car trunk, where they resided in hot Florida summer
temperatures for a few weeks til we got home. Then the busyness of
homecoming overtook us and they got forgotten. For over two years! I
mean, they were dead shells and in no need of immediate attention,
right. Well, when I eventually got them out to clean and catalogue, I
washed them and left them on a paper towel to dry. Imagine my surprise
when I found three of them crawling across the paper towel an hour or so
later! It appears we must accidentally have snagged a few live ones,
perhaps knocked off the pylon by wave action. But to have them survive
that heat! And then a two year stint in a baggie in my basement!
Impressive.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville KY


>
> I'd like to know whether it is an uncommon occurance for fresh-water
> snails to survive in a dormant form for many years, and what is the
> longest period known for the revival of same: has anyone ever left an
> amphora from King Tut's tomb, for example, in a wash-basin, and found
> 3000 year-old snails the  next day?
>
> Yours in The Wilderness of the Great White North,
> Ross.