Garden snails are evolving slower metabolisms.

(BBC): Natural selection is favouring snails with reduced metabolic rates, researchers in Chile have discovered. It is the first time that evolution has been shown to select for this trait in individuals of any species. Snails with lower metabolisms are at an advantage because they have more energy to spend on other activities such as growth or reproduction, the researchers say in the journal Evolution. Roberto Nespolo and Paulina Artacho of the Southern University of Chile in Valdivia examined a long standing biological hypothesis known as the "energetic definition of fitness".

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