In a constant stream of negative news came some light relief last November. Jeremy, an "ultra rare" snail had finally found a breeding partner after a nationwide search.
The "one in a million" snail is sinistral, meaning the spiral on the outside of its shell rotates in the other way to similar molluscs. He has a "left-handed" anti-clockwise shell rather than the opposite direction. As well as the shell being different, the snail's genitals are also on the "opposite side" to those in dextral snails – providing a difficult problem.
After finding the snail in a compost heap earlier this year, geneticists at the University of Nottingham decided to study him. But to help look accurately at the animal's genetic make-up, it was decided a second snail would be needed. Using the hashtag #snaillove, the researchers embarked on a mission to find Jeremy a mate.
Luckily for Jez, the campaign was successful: not one, but two snails with the same genetic condition were found. One in Tomeu, Spain, and another in Suffolk.
However, the story more recently took a turn for the worse. Rather than mating with Jeremy, the two hermaphrodite snails – named Lefty and Tomeu – mated with each other instead, producing 170 offspring. Jeremy was said to have not shown any interest in mating with either of his suitors which led them to pair up.
What's more, each of the 170 snails is right-handed, meaning the researchers are still no clearer on what causes the mutation.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
