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ArtistIn times of climate change, limpets are well-positioned to go terrestrial as their ocean food sources dwindle and sea levels rise. Limpets first invade the newly flooded coastal estuaries and forests. Limpets’ hard shells seal in moisture and give limpets the time over generations to develop the capacity to process air for oxygen. Terrestrial limpets have acquired the capacity to crawl slowly over decaying matter, feeding as they go. Limpets have made it to higher ground, where they slowly crawl up rocks and stones covered in lichen, a new food source for the limpets. The image is a close-up of limpets attached to higher-ground stones surrounded by grass mats and wildflowers. The stones are weathered and covered with gray-green and yellow-green lichen. The limpets have developed the colors of the lichen-covered rocks, with gray, tan, yellow, and olive green bands concentrically arranged around their keyholes, with darker and lighter rays of the same colors along radial ridges radiating from the keyholes. The limpets thus have fairly good camouflage. The new food sources, the protective carapaces, and the ability to breathe air and move along terrestrial surfaces have allowed limpets to grow to sizes topping out at 30 centimeters (12 inches). The style is a biological illustration with scientific precision, drawn as line art in bold colors.
Limpets go terrestrial: a conceivable evolutionary step.