J.B.S. Haldane famously quipped that if he learned anything about religion from his biological studies, it was that “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

Yesterday I was thinking something similar about mollusks. They’re in the deep ocean and in my kitchen garden. Snails live in salt water, fresh water, and on the trees here on the prairie. Mollusks are everywhere, it seems.

When we encounter them we often flinch at their boneless, wet bodies.

Alternatively, when I say I study freshwater mussels, the first question many people ask me is “Can you eat them?”

We ecologists often speak more loftily of the “ecosystem services” that other species provide. Mollusks filter water, feed other species, and decompose other organisms.

It is a challenge to value our neighbors beyond the ways we can profit from their existence.