An international team of researchers has shown that old
wives' tales that snails can tell us about the weather should not be dismissed
too hastily.
While the story goes that if a snail climbs a plant or post,
rain is coming, research led by the University of York goes one better: it
shows snails can provide a wealth of information about the prevailing weather
conditions thousands of years ago.
The researchers, including scientists from the Scottish
Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), analysed the chemistry of
snail shells dating back 9,000 to 2,500 years recovered from Mediterranean
caves, looking at humidity at different times in the past.