Harry and others,

Thanks for an interesting discussion. Sinistrality evidently is heritable,
because the unnamed French naturalist bred a colony of sinistral landsnails.
So it's likely a mutation, rare indeed on a human scale but not really rare
at all on a geologic scale.

The question arises, why is this mutation normally weeded out? For example,
do sinistral snails have difficulty in locomotion or feeding? Are they
easier for predators to kill, or are they more noticeable to predators and
therefore singled out for attack? Why did some lineages become normally
sinistral, and how common are dextral mutations among them?

To answer these questions would require having a colony of sinistral snails
at hand to experiment upon. Perhaps a couple of Conch-L naturalists who find
living specimens should get together on this. At the very least, they could
produce some interesting shells to trade.

Cheers,
Andy

Andrew K. Rindsberg

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