Symmetry is a feature of many plants, animals and even some molecules -- like water. But that's not the case with snails and their coiled shells. They are chiral -- asymmetrical in such a way that ...

Evolution doesn’t have to operate at a snail’s pace, even for snails. In experiments designed to simulate the evolutionary transition that produced slugs, researchers exposed baby snails to the metal ...

Bold snails are built to be tough. A close look at bold snails’ shells reveals that they are rounder, thicker and more bite-resistant than shy snails’ shells. This finding, published online April 22 ...

Most snails are righties. Now scientists have found genes that make some of them born with shells coiling the other way. By JoAnna Klein The overwhelming majority of snails live in shells that coil to ...

A treasure trove of rare freshwater fossils has been described from Taiwan in a new study. Dating back to the Early Pleistocene, over 1 million years ago, they include a baby snail preserved inside ...