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Sunday 18 October 2026

A violet sea snail in clear shallow water, its pale purple body and snout stretched out beside a glassy raft of bubbles.

Picked by voters

Violet sea snail

It floats upside down at the sea surface on a raft of bubbles it makes from its own mucus, eating by-the-wind sailors it bumps into.

Lives in
Open oceanThe sea surface of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide
More about the violet sea snailScientific name, size and Red List status
Scientific name
Janthina janthina
Size
Shell up to 3.8 cm high
IUCN Red List
Not evaluated

The IUCN Red List has assessed 175,909 species. This one has not been assessed yet. What this means

Fact source: NHM of Los Angeles County

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This week

Every animal so far
  1. Mon 19Basket star
  2. Tue 20Alpaca
  3. Wed 21Sociable weaver
  4. Thu 22Gumboot chiton
  5. Fri 23Cape dwarf chameleon
  6. Sat 24Northern paper waspToday
  7. Sun 25Tomorrow’s animalin 23 h 37 min

Why Animall

People can’t care about animals they have never heard of.

Scientists still discover thousands of new animal species every year, while many others are disappearing because of habitat loss and climate change. Some die out before anyone has described them.

10,000+

new animal species are described every year.

University of Arizona, 2025

86%

of species on Earth, and 91% in the ocean, have not been described yet.

Mora et al., 2011

73%

average drop in monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020.

WWF Living Planet Report, 2024