Rare Snail Has a 1-in-40,000 Chance of Finding a Mate. New Zealand Begins the Search (cnn.com) 48
There's something rare about a snail named Ned, reports CNN:
Ned's shell spirals left, while almost all other snails have right spiraling shells. It's a one in 40,000 genetic condition among the common corno espersum... "I was quite breathless for a moment," says Giselle Clarkson, an author, illustrator and self-described 'observologist' who found Ned while digging in her garden in Wairarapa, just north of capital Wellington. "I was just pulling out this plant, and a snail tumbled into the dirt and I was just about to scoop it up and just chuck it off to the side, when I realized what I had," Clarkson told CNN. It was a serendipitous moment for Ned, now named for Homer Simpson's left-handed neighbor. Clarkson was aware of this rare asymmetry in snails from her work with the magazine New Zealand Geographic.
But "should Ned hope to mate one day, it will have to be with another very rare left-coiled snail," notes the Washington Post (since, as CNN points out, this snail's reproductive organs "don't line up" with those of snails with right-spiraling shells). This has sparked a national campaign to locate a compatible snail — something that was last successfully attempted in 2016.
"If 40,000 people read this," the campaign explains, "chances are, Ned's dreams will come true."
But "should Ned hope to mate one day, it will have to be with another very rare left-coiled snail," notes the Washington Post (since, as CNN points out, this snail's reproductive organs "don't line up" with those of snails with right-spiraling shells). This has sparked a national campaign to locate a compatible snail — something that was last successfully attempted in 2016.
"If 40,000 people read this," the campaign explains, "chances are, Ned's dreams will come true."
Oh (Score:2)
Still better odds than me. :sadface
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Still better odds than me. :sadface
Why? Do you spiral left too? /s
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That reminds me of the poor duck. The male duck has equipment that spirals clockwise while the female duck has counter-clockwise pathways. She is in control of whether or not she allows... Well, I'll let you read the screwy details for yourself. awkwardly long, corkscrew-shaped penis [sciencefocus.com]
So what's the plan here? (Score:4, Insightful)
Are they hoping to breed an entire sinister species?
Under natural conditions, this mutation dies out immediately.
Humans have always helped along lots of weird mutations, but usually there's something in it for us.
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Yeah, I'm not quite getting the effort here. It's not an endangered species, it's a one off mutation that is an evolutionary dead end due to it creating problems for reproduction.
Maybe the experience of eating escargot is enhanced by having some snails who's shell twists the other way?
Re:So what's the plan here? (Score:4, Interesting)
evolutionary dead end due to it creating problems for reproduction.
I did not read that. The problem is only that the left-spiral and the right-spiral aren't compatible. But if we find a few of them and breed them, we can create a new species left-spiralling. (Whether we should is a separate question.)
This is as funny as a Sidehill gouger in the American folklore, or a Dahu in the French Alps ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ). These are folk creatures with two legs shorter than the other two, optimized to spiral around mountains. There are therefore two sets of them, left spinning and right spinning, which can't breed.
Re:So what's the plan here? (Score:4, Insightful)
What could possibly go wrong in Australia with animal breeding? I mean, they did fine with bunnies and toads, right?
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Wrong continent, mate.
Kiwiland. You know, where the hobbits went extinct.
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Men hunted Hobbits for sport (Score:2)
Humans caused the hobbits to go extinct now?!?
J. R. R. Tolkien indeed suggested that Men hunted Hobbits for sport. See "LOTR: Did Men Hunt Hobbits To Extinction For Sport?" by Alice Rose Dodds [gamerant.com], as well as a quotation from Tolkien's The Nature of Middle-earth [reddit.com].
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I did not read that.
Mutations that lead to major problems breeding (which 1 out of 40k odds of find a mate are) are usually evolutionary dead ends unless they're enhancing something else that is so advantageous that it overcomes the breeding problem.
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It's only a dead end because they're rare. But the next step in that project would be to mount a small snail farm and breed a few thousand of them. At that point if you keep releasing them, there will be enough for them to persist in that neighborhood for a long time. If you're on a small island, they even have a chance to take over.
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>These are folk creatures with two legs shorter than the other two,
>optimized to spiral around mountains. There are therefore two
>sets of them, left spinning and right spinning, which can't breed.
I forget which kind, but there is a crab found off both North America and off of Europe. Each has one big claw, but it's on the opposite side from those across the ocean.
biologists bred them together--and got crabs with *two* large claws--that couldn't walk due to the weight!
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It's not an endangered species,
Surely by literal definition it is. It's a snail that cannot breed with other genetically close snails, but could breed with other sinister snails - thus they form a separate species. It's also alone as, probably, are the other sinister snails, which means that when it dies, it's genetic line will be dead. That sounds pretty strongly endangered to me.
Doesn't sound so rare (Score:2)
How do you get snails to use a dating app? (Score:4, Funny)
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Are dating apps used for procreation?
Re: How do you get snails to use a dating app? (Score:2)
Re: How do you get snails to use a dating app? (Score:2)
Because... (Score:2)
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It's hard enough to get them to use email instead of -- um, what's it called, oh right - the Postal Service ... :-)
What about animal rights? (Score:3)
Did the snail ask them for this?
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Came to the comments to ask this very question. Ned's agency must be respected..
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hey (Score:1)
Still better than... (Score:2)
1-in-40,000 is still better than the chance for the average Slashdot reader!
Re: Still better than... (Score:2)
Shame it's FAR worse than what their parents had.....should've been the other way 'round
Whew! (Score:2)
At first I thought the poor thing's odds would really be 1/80,000. Because what if the one leftie it finds is the wrong gender?
But ChatGPT informs me most land snails are hermaphroditic. Both exchange sperm, and both lay eggs. Lucky break for the evolutionary unicorn!
Kinky, perhaps, but doubles its chances.
Only rightwing snails in NZ (Score:2)
And ONE leftie?
I had the same problem. (Score:1)
I didn't think I'd find a woman who could take a schlong as big as mine. Then I found your mom.
How very cis-spiral of them. (Score:2)
I am so hurt for him, and can feel a cancelling coming on.
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THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE (Score:2)
Cutting across Phylums (Score:2)
The modern world now gives: the Incnail .
It stays in its shell and plays video games, probably.
Yay NZ! (Score:2)
Thankfully, this is the sort of shit we worry about here in NZ. Good luck to the rest of you!