sinistral Jeremy garden snail on top of dextral. Credit: Angus Davison, University of Nottingham
sinistral Jeremy garden snail on top of dextral. Credit: Angus Davison, University of Nottingham

The love story of Jeremy, the left-behind snail

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Jeremy, the one-in-a-million ‘lefty’ garden snail, became an internet shellebrity after international researchers launched a #snaillove media campaign to help find a mate. The researchers called upon citizen scientists to help Jeremy find another reverse-coiled snail and figure out whether the backwards-twisting shell was an accident or a trait that can be inherited from mama and papa snail. The campaign was a success, and Jeremy was able to mate with another leftie snail just before its death, allowing researchers to figure out that its unique left-coiling shell is the result of a genetic accident, rather than an inherited trait.

Journal/conference: Biology Letters

Link to research (DOI): 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0110

Organisation/s: University of Nottingham, UK

Funder: No direct funding was received for this study. The core facilities and salary were funded by the University of Nottingham

Media release

Internet ‘shellebrity’ reflects on origin of rare mirror-image snails
Biology Letters

Following the discovery of very rare ‘lefty’ garden snail, geneticist Dr Angus Davison launched a #snaillove media campaign to find a mate. The snail that was named ‘Jeremy’, after a garden-loving UK politician, became a global sensation and internet ‘shellebrity’. More than 1000 news, radio, television and science articles, including by the BBC and New York Times, featured the plight of the lovelorn snail. By bringing together a worldwide group of citizen scientists, and the lefty snails that they had found, Davison used the publicity to understand what makes an exceptional reversed-coiled snail such as Jeremy. The findings showed that it is usually a developmental accident, rather than an inherited condition, that makes a lefty garden snail. There was also a happy ending for Jeremy, the snail, in mating and producing offspring just before his/her death.

Attachments:

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public

  • The Royal Society
    Web page
    The URL will go live after the embargo ends.

News for:

International

Multimedia:

  • Image 1:
    Image 1:

    Angus Davison with dextral on right finger and sinistral on left.

    File size: 945.7 KB

    Attribution: Shanthi Davison

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 03 Jun 2020 9:16am

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

  • Image 2:
    Image 2:

    Dextral garden snail on left and sinistral Jeremy on right

    File size: 2.3 MB

    Attribution: Angus Davison, University of Nottingham

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 03 Jun 2020 9:16am

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

  • Image 3:
    Image 3:

    Mirror image snails

    File size: 2.8 MB

    Attribution: Rebecca Jones

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 03 Jun 2020 9:16am

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

  • Image 4:
    Image 4:

    sinistral Jeremy garden snail on top of dextral

    File size: 1.9 MB

    Attribution: Angus Davison, University of Nottingham

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 03 Jun 2020 9:16am

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

  • Image 5:
    Image 5:

    where is lefty difficult.

    File size: 4.1 MB

    Attribution: Angus Davison, University of Nottingham

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 03 Jun 2020 9:16am

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

Show less
Show more

Media contact details for this story are only visible to registered journalists.