In the Northern hemisphere the rotation of the Earth determines a counter-clockwise spin on matter. Weather, ocean currents all are related in that spin. I wonder if my snail fossils preserve the original 'spin' of the earth's rotation and have a reserved momentum. Would that be useful in analyzing gravity/spin at that time period?
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3cross posted and answered correctly http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/150355/does-angular-momentum-of-our-planetary-spin-explain-the-natural-log-e-explanat – Dec 04 '14 at 08:58
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3Perhaps you could expand the question to explain what you felt was lacking in the answer you received on physics.se. – Pont Dec 04 '14 at 09:38
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I'm voting to close because this is about gastropod development and fossilization. Simply because there is a question of how the coriolis effect impacts gastropods does not mean that this is a question about the coriolis effect. This is off-topic for this site. – Richard Dec 04 '14 at 12:46
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I'm not entirely sure if this is off-topic: after all if the Coriolis effect had indeed an effect on gastropod chirality, their paleontological record would indeed be used as a proxy for paleolatitude or whatever and the question would therefore be on-topic. The fact that the reasons why it does not have indeed nothing to do with Earth Science seems incidental to me. – plannapus Dec 04 '14 at 13:31
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@plannapus Actually, after much consideration, I agree. This is not off-topic because it's specifically asking if that would be "useful in analyzing gravity/spin at that time period". I'm removing my close vote. Still, this question is begging the question of the coriolis effect (which is off-topic). The "would that be useful" question is not off-topic, though. – Richard Dec 04 '14 at 15:00
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1On the Physics site it was answered that the coriolis effect (spin) had no relation to gastropod development. That is why I am asking you. – ScottyAustin Dec 04 '14 at 08:52
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This question needs to be reworded heavily in order to give a consistent scientific train of thought. Perhaps someone who understands chirality could make such an edit. – f.thorpe Dec 05 '14 at 02:01
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Don't crosspost. The only reason I did not close this question is because your crosspost was already closed. – casey Dec 06 '14 at 03:04
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1Most interesting is the punting back-and-forth. The Physics side wonders why my question is even valid; "we are not biologists or geologists". So the same question to the other disciplines is almost the same. I will reformulate my question after consulting with few friends that may get my crossover concept. What is still unanswered is from the physics point of view, thanks for your comments – ScottyAustin Dec 11 '14 at 08:00
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3You have valid answers from a physics point of view both here and your Q on physics.SE. That you seemingly dont understand the link between Coriolis and planetary rotation does not impact their validity. – casey Dec 11 '14 at 11:22
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If you're talking about the chirality of the shell, it has been shown that it was the expression of the dpp gene (Shimizu et al. 2013).
More trivially, if chirality had anything to do with the Coriolis effect, all gastropods from the Southern Hemisphere would be sinistral and all the ones from the Northern hemisphere would be dextral. Which is not the case.
Shimizu et al. 2013. Left-right asymmetric expression of dpp in the mantle of gastropods correlates with asymmetric shell coiling. EvoDevo, 4(15).
plannapus
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1Interestingly, the sinistral/dextral coiling of foramnifera can be a function of temperature - allowing the ratio of s vs d to be used as a temperature proxy. I've always wondered about the accuracy of this technique though. – winwaed Dec 05 '14 at 16:12
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2@winwaed Neogloboquadrina pachyderma coiling direction is indeed often considered to be a usable sea surface temperature proxy. Other foraminifera species however can have very different coiling direction pattern (see in particular Pulleniatina obliquiloculata for an interesting case figure). – plannapus Dec 06 '14 at 12:41