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Published online 3 August 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070730-12
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The mystery of the wandering winkle
The date the common sea snail arrived in North America is still open to debate.
Researchers have renewed a century-old debate over whether the common periwinkle, a sea snail that has reshaped the ecology of much of the east coast of North America, was imported from Europe by humans.
Many considered the matter settled five years ago, when a team of ecologists argued that the genetic differences between European and American periwinkles showed that they had been in America for at least 8,000 years, well before any Europeans crossed the Atlantic.
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