December 21, 2016, by Lindsay Brooke
21 December 2016 – what’s the story behind door number 21?
Lonely ‘lefty’ snail seeks mate for love – and genetic study.
In October lonely Jeremy, the rare lefty snail, hit the headlines when researcher Angus Davison set out to find him a mate.
Jeremy’s unique qualities make him a one in a million find – but also impossible for him to find mate. There was a serious side to this dilemma. Dr Davison is wanting to study the genetics of this ultra-rare garden snail.
Dr Angus Davison, an expert in evolutionary genetics in the School of Life Sciences, said: “This really is an exciting find – I have been studying snails for more than 20 years and I have never seen one of these before. We are very keen to study the snail’s genetics to find out whether this is a result of a developmental glitch or whether this is a genuine inherited genetic trait.”
Who opened the door?
The busy elves in our post room found a few spare moments to open door number 21 on our digital advent calendar. The elves are recruited every year at this time to help out with the extra workload!
You can find out more about the digital advent calendar here. And here’s the video about Jeremy the snail.
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