It is not often that a young college student finds living examples of two presumed extinct species while working as an intern, but Alex Lines can claim such a feat.

A Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo summer intern, Alex rediscovered Poecilozonties circumfirmatus and the Odontomachus insularis - scientific names for a species of snail and ant - last week when interns were given a project by Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer, Museum Curator of the Aquarium.

Dr. Sterrer said: "We thought it would be nice for our interns to see if the local snails have survived anywhere. Alex Lines went to one of the places the endemic snail was last seen and he returned with the snail."

The Poecilozonties snail was rediscovered on July 1, near the Spittal Pond. It remains one of Bermuda's endemic (which means it can only be found in Bermuda) snails that was thought to be extinct since the mid 1980's.

The next day, Dr. Sterrer gave Alex a picture of Odontomachus and sent him out for its rediscovery. And just as sure as Alex received his directions, he also returned with the ant.

The genus Poecilozonites (pronounced pee-cil-o-zon-eye-tees) is hailed as a stellar example of species radiation from one animal, with palaeontologists believing one animal may have arrived here on flotsam. By the time Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s there had been up to 15 species over thousands of years.

Dr. Sterrer gave The Royal Gazette his hypothesis that explains why these snails went missing.

"Through the Ice Age, most of them died and at least two of the species were alive and well," Dr. Sterrer said.

"In the 1960's, Steven Jay Gould - a popular scientist - did work on these snails and at that time he found two species that were alive."

However, 20 years later, another specialist arrived in Bermuda to study the Island's land snails and only found one of the remaining species alive.

And when Dr. Gould revisited the Island in 1989 to continue his studies on the snails, his efforts proved to be fruitless because the species had disappeared.

Dr. Gould - who ironically died of cancer just three weeks ago - completed his doctoral thesis on poecilozonites and wrote about his experiences in Bermuda. In December 2000 he fondly recalled for The Royal Gazette riding Dowling's cycles while scouring the Island for living snails and fossil shells.

"These snails are very venerable and easily disturbed and become extinct by changes in the environment - especially by predators and competitors. They first became extinct when snail eating snails where introduced," Dr. Sterrer said.

He continued to explain that carnivorous snails such as the spiraxidae and Euglandia rosea, which was deliberately imported into the Island in 1958, may have also made a meal out of the Island's endemic snails.

He said: "So we thought maybe a cannibal snail had eaten all our species since none had been seen since the 1980's."

Dr. Sterrer also said many other species, including plants and animals, were being introduced and began to take a toll on the Island's endemic species.

He said that most of the remaining endemic species are found in caves, "about 25 percent of all endemics are found in underwater caves and there are probably about only 250 endemic species in Bermuda out of 8,000".

The ant, Dr. Sterrer said, was not as glorious a find because it was reported that the ant was seen in various places Island-wide before it was found by Alex.

Alex said: "I feel great about the finding. It's good we found it so we can reintroduce it in places."

Nineteen year old Alex Lines is currently studying at Brown University and his major is undecided at the moment.