Desert Hopper
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The Desert Hopper is a mollusk created for the film The Future is Wild. The desert hopper is an advanced snail about 1 foot tall and inhabits the Rainshadow Desert of Pangaea II 200 million years from now. Today, snails are restricted in size on land and they slide along on a sheet of mucus. In a desert, water for creating a lubricant is dangerous since water could be lost easily. The desert hopper takes this specialization a step further. Instead of eyes on stalks, the eyes of the desert hopper rest on movable turrets like those of chameleons. To conserve water, the desert hopper's skin is like that of modern reptiles. Instead of sliding on mucus, the foot of the desert hopper modified like a spring for hopping over the desert. To eat tough desert plants, its toothed tongue functions like a drill to bore into plant material. This weakness for plant food makes it common prey for deathbottles. To protect itself from intense heat and predators, the desert hopper retreats into a spike-covered eight-inch shell.
Image of a desert hopper[1]
