Top 5 Scaly-foot Gastropod: The Snail With an Armor of Iron

This was near extremely hot hydrothermal vents from the deep in the Indian Ocean. The scalding hot water erupted in the tall associated with blacky columns. It lived an extraordinary species of snail named as chrysomallon squamiferum. It was well known as scaly foot gastropod. The harsh environment had induced the snail to create a unique exoskeleton. That is, its outer shell was covered with a layer of iron and its soft fleshy. This protruded from below the shell being protected by hard mineralized scale made of iron sulphides. Note that the scaly food gastropod was only animal on the Earth recognized as utilizing iron in this way.

It is known that the scaly food was first discovered in 1999. It was at depth of over two kilometer in central Indian Ocean being been deep in hydrothermal vent fields. However, the water in these vents was high in sulfides and metals. It is seen that the snails were incorporated into their shells. The entire animal was covered in iron compound, mainly pyrite including “Fool’s gold” and greigite. Indeed, greigite is magnetic being brought the animal actually sticks to magnets.