Saturday, October 20, 2007

The Superiority of Left-Handedness Pt. 2: Lessons from the Snail

I don't know why I even bother. The superiority of left-handedness is not even open to scientific debate. It has been a settled matter for millions of years, ever since the L-amino acids won the out over the D-amino acids and went on to become the building blocks of life and dominate the planet. But for those who need even further evidence that evolution drives multi-cellular organisms toward the ideal of left-handedness, one need only look to the example of the snail.

Yes indeed, for this ancient and highly evolved organism, left-handed shell coiling provides a clear survival advantage, rendering these highly fit individuals immune to attacks from inferior right-handed crabs. As the authors of this excellent study point out, the physical superiority of lefty snails parallels the well-established superiority of left-handed humans in physical competitions:

"This advantage parallels some social interactions in human cultures that result when right and left-handed individuals compete, especially in sports or fights involving dual confrontations (interactive contests such as boxing, tennis, fencing and baseball), where left-handers occasionally enjoy an advantage over their right-handed opponents."

Clearly then, left-handedness confers not only intellectual, but also physical superiority to a diverse range of multi-cellular organisms across phylogenetic taxa.

Further reading on the superiority of left-handedness in the human:


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Whatever, everybody knows left-handers can't think in 3D, and are lazy.

Anonymous said...

The lefties are taking over!

Kevin Zelnio said...

Perhaps you would be interest in my post involving snails, sex, and chirality.