The snids (snail kids) are all right

October 14, 2017 7:47 PM

Jeremy the left-coiled snail has died but his life was an inspiration to science. An international volunteer effort to find him a left-coiled (sinistral) mate even inspired a song.

By the way, some snail-eating snakes have asymmetric teeth and prefer to hunt dextral snails.

posted by moonmilk (18 comments total)

At home
Drawing pictures
Of mountain tops
With him on top
Lemon yellow sun
Shell curled in a G
posted by leotrotsky at 8:01 PM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]

Woah. The evolution article is cool.
posted by lemonade at 8:03 PM on October 14, 2017

But more importantly, I now know that Donny Osmond's heart is in the right side of his chest.
posted by double bubble at 8:08 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

But more importantly, I now know that Donny Osmond's heart is in the right side of his chest.

For targeting purposes, presumably?
posted by leotrotsky at 8:13 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Maybe.
posted by double bubble at 8:20 PM on October 14, 2017

Last November, two potential partners (Lefty of Ipswich, England and Tomeu of Majorca, Spain) were brought to Nottingham. But they appeared to prefer each other over him, producing more than 300 babies.

Daaaaang. Tough break Jer.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:21 PM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

.
posted by limeonaire at 10:30 PM on October 14, 2017

Man, leftys getting a bad rap AGAIN!
posted by Samizdata at 10:36 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jeremy had been sluggish since February,

does that mean he was just coming out of his shell?
posted by phooky at 6:06 AM on October 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Interesting stuff—and a big [+] for the post title.
posted by heyho at 6:55 AM on October 15, 2017

Aren't snails hermaphrodites?
posted by keep_evolving at 7:06 AM on October 15, 2017

How do they know if Jeremy "likely" fathered the last batch of snails?
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:50 AM on October 15, 2017

They all have wavy hair just like dad
posted by moonmilk at 8:03 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

yes, snails are hermaphrodites, that's why it was possible for Jeremy's two potential mates to mate with each other.
posted by idiopath at 8:37 AM on October 15, 2017

Teeny tiny episode of Jerry Springer.... "YOU are the father... AND the mother!"
posted by The otter lady at 8:50 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Well, that was an unexpected twist." --Jeremy's life story
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:01 AM on October 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

I just finished “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating”, and you should read it.
posted by scruss at 2:57 PM on October 15, 2017

"We've found that a single gene can have major effects on speciation and adaptation simultaneously."

That single gene controls both sexual compatibility and confers a very significant survival advantage.

It totally makes sense that a spiral shaped snail of predominantly one coil chirality could drive their predator's evolution. In this case, snakes with more teeth on one side of their head, like a snail can-opener that can only open one particular handedness of snail.

I suspect that snake teeth morphology is genetically more "sticky" because it involves multiple cell types, and multiple growth signals that are temporally regulated, whereas the coil chirality is a single regulator gene that just has to get things going along.
posted by porpoise at 5:22 PM on October 15, 2017