The great snail hunt
Because I have been working 7 days for the last 2 months I have had to neglect my OU course to a certain extent which means I have fallen a little behind. Good job I was well ahead before I started here. As I said I hope to catch up with the reading and study side while we are away on holiday but there is also a project associated with this course. There was a choice of four and I chose the one where you study Cepaea nemoralis which is a type of snail. A ‘banded snail’ to use its common name. There are two different types of these but I can’t remember the name of the other one (lets hope he doesn’t get a complex). It is part of a nationwide study that will contribute to our better understanding of the distribution and genetics of these creatures. I don’t expect it to be particularly exciting but anyone can contribute to this data collection not just nerdy OU students, it’s even been advertised on the tv. Anyone interested can go to www.evolutionmegalab.org and read the introductory material and if your still not put off you can register and collect data as I will have to. There is no difference between others doing it and people on the course doing it other than the analysis afterwards. We will be expected to spend days and nights analysing these date and 
coming up with our own explanations to explain what we find. The first part of this task is to collect up to 40 of these beasts and record what we find before putting them back where we found them. As I expect I will feel a bit of a fool rummaging through the undergrowth collecting snails on my own, I asked Claire on Sunday if she would come with me. I haven’t yet got a commitment but I’m working on it, we could combine this “snail hunt” with a nice walk and a nice lunch and drinks to follow (as long as it’s not a French restaurant). The snails have up to five bands of differing colours and we have to record which varieties we find. I believe that genetically its quite simple where each band relates to a gene allele so if a number of collections are analysed statistically then the gene distribution relating to the bands will be known. It is currently thought that different bands give better camouflage in different undergrowths and so better protecting them but this is only a guess. We will all soon have a better understanding of gene distribution of Cepaea nemoralis after “The Great Snail Hunt”.
Because I have been working 7 days for the last 2 months I have had to neglect my OU course to a certain extent which means I have fallen a little behind. Good job I was well ahead before I started here. As I said I hope to catch up with the reading and study side while we are away on holiday but there is also a project associated with this course. There was a choice of four and I chose the one where you study Cepaea nemoralis which is a type of snail. A ‘banded snail’ to use its common name. There are two different types of these but I can’t remember the name of the other one (lets hope he doesn’t get a complex). It is part of a nationwide study that will contribute to our better understanding of the distribution and genetics of these creatures. I don’t expect it to be particularly exciting but anyone can contribute to this data collection not just nerdy OU students, it’s even been advertised on the tv. Anyone interested can go to www.evolutionmegalab.org and read the introductory material and if your still not put off you can register and collect data as I will have to. There is no difference between others doing it and people on the course doing it other than the analysis afterwards. We will be expected to spend days and nights analysing these date and 
coming up with our own explanations to explain what we find. The first part of this task is to collect up to 40 of these beasts and record what we find before putting them back where we found them. As I expect I will feel a bit of a fool rummaging through the undergrowth collecting snails on my own, I asked Claire on Sunday if she would come with me. I haven’t yet got a commitment but I’m working on it, we could combine this “snail hunt” with a nice walk and a nice lunch and drinks to follow (as long as it’s not a French restaurant). The snails have up to five bands of differing colours and we have to record which varieties we find. I believe that genetically its quite simple where each band relates to a gene allele so if a number of collections are analysed statistically then the gene distribution relating to the bands will be known. It is currently thought that different bands give better camouflage in different undergrowths and so better protecting them but this is only a guess. We will all soon have a better understanding of gene distribution of Cepaea nemoralis after “The Great Snail Hunt”.
1 comment:
The snail he lives in his hard round house,
In the orchard, under the tree:
Says he, "I have but a single room;
But it's large enough for me."
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