Jeremy (snail)
sinistral garden snail; Internet celebrity
Jeremy (died 11 October 2017) was a left-coiled garden snail studied by researchers from the University of Nottingham.
The snail had a rare condition that caused its shell to coil to the left; in the vast majority of garden snails the shell coils to the right. It was hoped that the condition would be due to a mutation, and that genes identified from this snail and its offspring would help scientists unlock genetic markers in humans and other animals. At first it was thought to be a rare genetic mutation, although later work revealed that it was likely due to an accident in early development.
Jeremy was named after the left-wing British Labour politician Jeremy Corbyn, on account of it being a "lefty" snail, but also due to Corbyn's reported love of gardening. The snail became famous worldwide after a public appeal to find other left-coiled snails for a mate. Jeremy had 56 offspring and died on 11 October 2017, aged "at least two" years.
Life
A retired scientist found Jeremy in southwest London. He contacted the University of Nottingham and sent them the snail. A group of researchers, led by resident snail expert Angus Davison, then launched a public appeal to find another 'lefty' snail as a mate.
“Jeremy (snail)” enters the record as sinistral garden snail; Internet celebrity. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jeremy, snail and sinistral can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jeremy (snail)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.