Scientists at The University of Nottingham hoping to study the genetics of an ultra-rare garden snail are asking the public for its help in finding the lonely mollusc a mate.
The snail’s unique qualities make it a one in a million find - but also impossible for it to mate with its more common counterparts.
At first glance, the brown garden snail may look like any other but closer inspection of the snail’s shell reveals exactly why this creature is so special.
While the shells of this common species spiral in a right-handed, clockwise direction – known as dextral – the Nottingham snail is a sinistral, with a left-handed anti-clockwise spiralling shell. In essence, the ‘lefty’ snail is a mirror image of its other shell-dwelling friends.
University of Nottingham
Davison is asking people to be on the look out for lefty snails. "This is something which everyone can get involved with and which you can easily do on your own doorstep. It is an example of citizen science at its best. There is a chance, because it is such a rare thing, that anyone who can find and identify another of these sinistral snails may even find themselves named as a contributor on a research paper we publish in the future as a result of this."
Anyone who finds a mate for Jeremy is asked to send pictures of it to angus.davison@nottingham.ac.uk or tweet it with the hashtag #snaillove.
Source: cbc
Find Jeremy the 'lefty' snail a mate | BBC News
Find Jeremy the 'lefty' snail a mate.
A rare garden snail with an anticlockwise shell - a "lefty" - has been discovered in London. It's an exciting discovery but sadly for "Jeremy", he can only mate with another unique lefty.
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