人们收集到的蜗牛样本（图）
2009年的4月到10月期间，在欧洲15个国家，超过6000人参与了这项开放性的科学研究计划。
这项研究的目的在于找出这种带纹蜗牛在已知的全球温度变化的条件下，过去的40年间是否发生了进化。它比较了大量公众收集的样本和在1950年到1990年间所保存的数据，并且主要是1960年到1970年的数据。
研究者们期望的是蜗牛的壳变得更轻了，这样才以便于他们逃避阳光的照射。但这仅仅发现于在沙丘收集到的蜗牛样本，这些地方蜗牛非常难于躲避阳光。尽管进化随处可见，但是最令人想不到的是其中壳上带有单一黑色螺纹型条纹的蜗牛所占比例大大增加了。
究竟是何种原因导致了螺纹的减少尚不清楚，这似乎不和气候的变化相关。研究者们猜想这可能和鸟类掠夺行为的减少和一些小规模的环境变化相关。但究竟是何原因，还有待于后续的研究。
生物探索推荐英文论文摘要：
Citizen Science Reveals Unexpected Continental-Scale Evolutionary Change in a Model Organism
Organisms provide some of the most sensitive indicators of climate change and evolutionary responses are becoming apparent in species with short generation times. Large datasets on genetic polymorphism that can provide an historical benchmark against which to test for recent evolutionary responses are very rare, but an exception is found in the brown-lipped banded snail (Cepaea nemoralis). This species is sensitive to its thermal environment and exhibits several polymorphisms of shell colour and banding pattern affecting shell albedo in the majority of populations within its native range in Europe. We tested for evolutionary changes in shell albedo that might have been driven by the warming of the climate in Europe over the last half century by compiling an historical dataset for 6,515 native populations of C. nemoralis and comparing this with new data on nearly 3,000 populations. The new data were sampled mainly in 2009 through the Evolution MegaLab, a citizen science project that engaged thousands of volunteers in 15 countries throughout Europe in the biggest such exercise ever undertaken. A known geographic cline in the frequency of the colour phenotype with the highest albedo (yellow) was shown to have persisted and a difference in colour frequency between woodland and more open habitats was confirmed, but there was no general increase in the frequency of yellow shells. This may have been because snails adapted to a warming climate through behavioural thermoregulation. By contrast, we detected an unexpected decrease in the frequency of Unbanded shells and an increase in the Mid-banded morph. Neither of these evolutionary changes appears to be a direct response to climate change, indicating that the influence of other selective agents, possibly related to changing predation pressure and habitat change with effects on micro-climate.
