Barycypraea teulerei (Cazenavette, 1845)(Gastropoda Cypraeidae): a successful species or an evolutionary dead-end?

Barycypraea teulerei (Cazenavette, 1845) (Gastropoda Cypraeidae) is an unusual cowrie species, showing remarkable adaptations to an uncommon environment. It lives intertidally on flat sand/mud salt marshes, in a limited range, in Oman. On Masirah Island, humans probably drove it to extinction because of shell collecting. A new population, with a limited range, has recently been discovered, and this article describes observations I made on site in 2014. Evolution shaped this species into a rather specialized and successful life, but has also put it at risk. Barycypraea teulerei is well adapted to survive in its habitat, but at the same time is easily visible and accessible to humans, and this puts it at high risk of extinction. Evolution is indeed a blind watchmaker that ‘has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all’. And B. teulerei was just plain unlucky to encounter our species on its journey on our planet.