Anastasia Gilmer and Britt Bousman sieving contemporary snail samples from a residential yard in San Marcos in October, 2011. The severe drought in the preceding summer led to a catastrophic, rapid die-off, which gives us a snapshot of living snail faunas. We can look at species composition, biodiversity, adult-juvenile ratios, and profiles of body sizes to compile a benchmark for evaluating archeological assemblages in Central Texas. We collected samples from five 1 x 1 meter quadrants in different microhabitats, so we can evaluate spatial variability and microhabitat response in this relatively arid, upland habitat as well. |