Jeremy (snail)

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Jeremy (above) with his left-hand winding house. Including, for comparison, an ordinary conspecific.

Jeremy was a spotted garden snail . She was a snail king because, unlike most of her conspecifics, she had a left-handed house .

Life

Jeremy was discovered in a compost heap in London in 2016 . It had a genetic peculiarity that very few land snails have: their house is not right-handed, but left-handed. This meant that all organs, including the genital organs, were on the left side. Although Jeremy was a hermaphrodite like all land snails , such reproduction with right-hand conspecifics was not possible. This made Jeremy interesting for genetic research . Scientist Angus Davison and his team from the University of Nottingham had deciphered the gene responsible for the right turn just a year earlier. This gene is also present in other living things and is responsible for symmetry .

The researchers launched an international appeal and set up a Twitter account for the snail. At the end of their search, two other specimens were found with Tomeu from Mallorca and Lefty from Ipswich , which also had this genetic feature. In fact, Tomeu and Lefty bred first, producing a total of 170 offspring. Meanwhile, some media coverage of the unusual story, and Jeremy became internationally known. Even a ballad was dedicated to the snail. Eventually Jeremy could be paired with Tomeu. The descendants of the three snails all have right-handed shells, so the researchers are now hoping for the grandchildren.

Jeremy was found dead on October 11, 2017. Obituaries in the snail, whose age was unknown, appeared among others in the mirror , on BBC.co.uk and in the world .

Surname

Namesake Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy was named after the British politician Jeremy Corbyn . The party leader of the Labor Party is considered a representative of the political left and passionate gardener, which gave the researchers the idea to give the snail this name.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Viola Ulrich: Why snail Jeremy is not lucky in love. Die Welt , May 23, 2017, accessed October 30, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Obituaries: Jeremy, age unknown . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , October 21, 2017, p. 141 .
  3. ↑ a b Julia Haase: Snail Jeremy is dead! But shortly before that, he experienced love. Die Welt , October 18, 2017, accessed October 30, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Tomasz Frymorgen: RIP Jeremy: The tragic tale of a mutant snail. BBC.co.uk , October 30, 2017, accessed October 30, 2017 .