Snails have a reputation for being slow, with poor eyes that can barely see the world around them.

But conch snails defy these expectations with eyesight as good as some vertebrates. These marine snails combine exceptional vision, protective shells, and acrobatic leaping to evade deadly predators.

Stromboidea sea snails provide some of the best examples of nature’s different approaches to eyesight. While some members of the group, like the strombids, have well-developed eyes at the end of long, mobile eyestalks, others have small ones on tiny eyestalks that are tucked under their oral tentacles.