Evolution in the Back Yard: Census of 750,000 Banded Snails Leads to Surprising Results (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110427171511.htm)
QuoteScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2011) — Thousands of members of the public across Europe have taken part in one of the largest evolutionary studies ever, by observing banded snails in their gardens and open public spaces.
More than 6,000 people in 15 European countries took part in the Open University's citizen science project between April and October 2009...
...The expectation was that snail shells would have become lighter, as protection from overheating in sunlight. This was only found to be the case for snails sampled in sand dune habitat, where it is harder for the snails to seek shelter from the heat of the sun. The evolutionary change that was seen everywhere, however, was an unexpected increase in the percentage of snails with a single dark spiral band around the shell...
I was one of the people involned in this as part of a course I did about evolution with the OU.
Aww, that's awesome for those snails. It makes,me happy to see animals evolving for the better. (i dunno: snails are cute!)