Left-handed snails are better than righties at defending against predators, according to a new study that suggests lefties have the same competitive advantage in nature that they enjoy on the baseball diamond or in the boxing ring. 

　　美国一项最新的研究结果显示，自然环境中那些“左撇子”蜗牛比“右撇子”蜗牛能更好地抵抗其它食肉动物而生存下来。这使人联想到，在棒球场地或者拳击台上的那些左撇子选手较之右撇子选手具有相同的竞争优势。 

The study, published in this month’s Royal Society Biology Letters, suggests that snails whose shells coil toward the left were more likely to survive crab attacks than those whose shells coil toward the right. 

　　据美联社3月23日报道，这项研究被发表在本月的英国《皇家学会生物学简报》上。研究显示，那些“左撇子”蜗牛（壳向左边盘绕的蜗牛）和“右撇子”（壳向右边盘绕）的同类相比，前者在遭遇天敌——螃蟹的袭击时，幸存几率要更大一些。 

"It’s just a frequency issue," said Yale geologist Gregory P. Dietl, one of the study’s authors. "As long as you’re rare, you’re going to have an advantage." 

　　研究人员之一、美国耶鲁大学的地质学家格列高利·迪特尔说：“这只是一个出现频率的问题。只要你非常稀有，那你就具有某种优势。” 

　The researchers studied about 1,800 snail fossils, looking for scarring evidence of a predator attack. Scarring was found more frequently on right-handed snails, the study said. 

　　报道说，研究人员们对大约1800个蜗牛化石进行了研究，以寻找它们遭到其他食肉动物袭击时留下的蛛丝马迹。研究发现，在“右撇子”蜗牛的化石上，更容易找到那些食肉动物留下的伤痕。 

Researchers offered two explanations for the advantage. Because most crabs are right-handed, they said, cracking into a shell that opens on the opposite side might be more difficult. 

　　对于“左撇子”蜗牛具有的这种生存优势，研究人员给出了两种解释。他们说，第一，由于大多数的螃蟹都是“右撇子”，因此它们撬开并伸进一个朝反方向张开的蜗牛壳里，可能难度要更大一些。 

Alternatively, researchers said crabs might simply not be used to attacking lefties, just as baseball pitchers face fewer left-handed batters."It’s the same thing here in nature," Dietl said. "These snails that are left-handed, they have an advantage. It doesn’t become an advantage if lefties are just as common as righties." 

　　另外一种解释就是，或许螃蟹只是不习惯于攻击那些“左撇子”蜗牛，这就像棒球投手不习惯面对较少的左撇子击球手一样。迪特尔还说：“这些‘左撇子’蜗牛具有生存优势。但如果左撇子和右撇子一样常见的话，那么它也不会演变成这种优势的。”