Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Lien, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Museum of Nature has sent a report on the discovery results and announced a new species of land snail to science.

It is known that during scientific research at Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, the research team from the Vietnam National Museum of Nature discovered a new species of land snail with the scientific name Calybium plicatus sp.nov.

Species specimen photos were taken in the lab

Calybium plicatus sp.nov belongs to the genus Calybium, family Helicinidae, order Cycloneritida, class Gastropoda and was collected from doline 1 in Son Doong cave. This is the first recorded species of terrestrial gastropod molluscs in Vietnam. This species has a shell shape similar to Calybium massiei, Morlet, 1892 but differs in having a smaller shell size, the apex wall having six equally spaced apical plates.

The newly discovered land snail species was described by Vietnamese experts, as part of the research project on studying the biodiversity of the Son Doong cave system for conservation and sustainable development, conducted from 2022 to 2024, chaired by Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Lien, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Museum of Nature. The research team has proposed naming this new land snail species “Oc non Son Doong” (Son Doong cone snail) in Vietnamese.

Photo taken at sinkhole 1, Son Doong Cave

The Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park Management Board has directed specialized departments and units to add this new land snail to the Phong Nha – Ke Bang New Species List and propose solutions to preserve and store the above specimens to serve the management, protection and conservation./.