
The Alabama live-bearing snail, Tulotoma magnifica, was described in 1834 by Philadelphia naturalist Timothy A. Conrad from specimens he collected in the Alabama River near Claiborne, Monroe County. He noted that the snails appeared "in vast abundance," with 20 or 30 individual snails attached to the undersides of flat rocks in the river's shoals and riffles.
Conrad bestowed the name "magnifica" for good reason, because the snail's globular, golfball-sized shells are magnificently ornamented with spirals of protuberant knobs. Its reproductive habits were also of great interest to him because the species gives birth to live, fully formed young rather than larvae or eggs. These juveniles remain protected within their mothers until they reach two to four millimeters long and then are released into the water from early spring to early autumn. After attaching themselves to the underside of a rock, they feed on algae, bacteria, and floating detritus. They most likely live three to five years.
The tulotoma was later found in large numbers (sometimes several hundred individuals under a single boulder) in tributaries of the Alabama River, especially the Coosa River system. But within 100 years, the snail population was in steep decline. It had disappeared completely from the Alabama River, including its original discovery site at Claiborne. By the 1950s, only a handful of living individuals existed in Big Canoe Creek, Choccolocco Creek, and Kelley Creek. In 1976, Tulotoma magnifica was declared likely extinct.
Many factors contributed to the tulotoma's demise. The most significant, however, was the impoundment of the Coosa and Alabama rivers for hydropower and navigation. Between 1914 and 1966, six major dams were built on the Coosa that drowned out the shoal areas required by the snail. Similar projects affected the Alabama River. Over the years, these river systems—which once held the most diverse freshwater fauna in the world—suffered catastrophic losses, especially to their snail and mollusk populations.

Additional Resources
Bogan, Arthur E., J. Malcolm Pierson, and Paul Hartfield. "Decline in the Freshwater Gastropod Fauna in the Mobile Bay Basin." In Our Living Resources: A Report to the Nation on the Distribution, Abundance, and Health of U.S. Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems, edited by Edward T. LaRoe et al., pp. 249-52. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Biological Service, 1995.
Davenport, L. J. "Tulotoma, the Alabama Live-Bearing Snail." Alabama Heritage 38 (Fall 1995): 48, 50.
Hershler, Robert, J. Malcolm Pierson, and R. Stephen Krotzer. "Rediscovery of Tulotoma magnifica (Conrad) (Gastropoda: Viviparidae)." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 103 (1990): 815-24.
Stein, Carol B. "Gastropods." In Endangered and Threatened Plants and Animals of Alabama, edited by Herbert Boschung, pp. 21-41. Tuscaloosa: Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History 2 (1976): 1-92.