Abstract
THE snail, Helix pomatia, concentrates more calcium per unit body-weight in lesser time than most terrestrial animals, that is, 20–40 gm. calcium per kgm., about 50 per cent of which is deposited in the last summer season of the snail's life and 25 per cent in the last but one. Eating mostly green parts of the higher plants of low calcium content, and moving about only on wet days, the snail is much exposed to radioactive fall-out and apt to build in along with the calcium any strontium present. Assuming that the shells would yield useful information about contamination due to strontium-90, specimens kindly supplied by P. Agócsy, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, were investigated.
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References
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SÁNDI, E. Radioactivity in Snail Shells due to Fall-out. Nature 193, 290 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/193290a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/193290a0
