Transsexual Snails

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

It turns out that snails, often confused with toads, are also well in advance in many scientific and social science explorations*, are prone to form male/male romantic attachments in which one partner eventually changes sex so they can settle down into normal married life with children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jun/17/same-sex-...

Cheers,

Puddin'
-----------
* See The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
'I wonder,' [Toad] said to himself presently, 'I wonder if this sort of car STARTS easily?'

I would not enter in my list of friends,
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path,
But he has the humanity, forewarned,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
--- William Cowper

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven --
All's right with the world!
--- Robert Browning
(I had to add a quote from Browning,
just because many don't realise that
snails weighed heavily in his notion
of the proper order.)

Comments

I think it read

Angharad's picture

that marine snails change sex, not toads. Toads will attempt to bonk each other but the males have a loud 'release call' to make other males let them go. Toads actually get so excited during the mating season, that several will attempt to fertilise a female at the same time - it's not unknown for said female to be drowned during process.

I used to help toads cross the road when I lived in Wales - they used to come down from the woods and had to cross a busy road to mate in a reservoir. On a bad night hundreds could be killed by drivers.

As far as I'm aware the only vertebrates to physically change sex are some types of fish.

Angharad

Angharad

Conservapedia bait?

Oh, great. Think about it: a study about the relation between evolution and homosexuality. I can already see the stupid fringe of the Religious Right ranting about it.

I was shocked, shocked, to discover...

Puddintane's picture

...that there are people who insist that "strange ideas" don't enter their heads. Why bother reading?

Cheers,

Puddin'
-----------
Botereaux: Argent, three toads erected sable.

So gay toads were known in antiquity as well.

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Implications

So perhaps Frog and Toad are "more than friends"?

Frog and Toad are Friends

I loved the Frog and Toad stories...

Puddintane's picture

I had the raising of a young girl from tricycles to marriage and children, so know them all by heart.

And of course they were rather fond of each other, and never married, the usual signifier.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

LBGT Animals

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Here's the Science Friday (PBS) version of the story...

Puddintane's picture

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200906194

Off to the left, you can listen to the podcast.

or download the mp3: http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/510...

Here's the Wired version:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/samese/

which mentions fishy (Goodeid) drag queens who distract straight males.

Cheers,

Puddin'

-

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Snails

littlerocksilver's picture

Many land snails are hermaphroditic. They will simultaneously fertilize each other. Portia

Portia