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(Image credit: HKUST)
FAST FACTS
Call: Scaly-foot snail(Chrysomallon squamiferum
Where it lives: Hydrothermal vents on the seafloor of the Indian Ocean
What it consumes: As an adult, it does not! All of the snail’s nutrition is produced internally, by endosymbiotic germs– microorganisms that reside in the snail’s gut.
The scaly-foot snail, or volcano snail, has something special amongst gastropods: a coat of protective armor covering its foot, made from numerous overlapping iron-infused scalesIt strengthens these scales with minerals soaked up from the hot liquid gushed by hydrothermal vents and black cigarette smoker chimneys at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, where water can reach temperature levels of 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius).
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Within the snail’s scales, sulfur responds with iron ions to form iron sulfide nanoparticles. More strengthening the snail’s defenses is an external layer of iron sulfide in its shell, making it the just recognized multicellular animal to reinforce its skeleton with ironWhen the National Museum of Wales obtained a set of specimens in 2015, managers were informed to prevent utilizing any water in the preservative option, due to the fact that otherwise the snails would begin to rust.
Below all that armor, the scaly-foot snail has a huge heart– the biggest in the Animal Kingdom relative to the animal’s size — comprising about 4% of the volume of its whole body. In waters where oxygen levels are low, that massive heart likewise provides oxygen to the cooperative germs that reside in the snail’s esophageal gland and serve as an integrated food factory. The snails, whose shells determine about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in length typically, are often called “sea pangolins” for their similarity to the armor-plated land mammal.
People have both male and female sex organsThey sneak along the ocean bottom at depths of around 1.7 miles (2,780 meters), and are understood from simply 3 hydrothermal vent fields to the east of Mauritius, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa.
Scaly-foot snails likewise have the biggest hearts, relative to body size, of any recognized animal in the world. (Image credit: Chong Chen, CC BY-SA 3.0, by means of Wikimedia Commons)
While the snails’ prospective environment amounts to around 0.1 square miles (0.3 square kilometers), the variety where they are presently discovered covers simply 0.008 square miles (0.02 sq km). Even this small sliver of the deep ocean is ending up being risky for the snails, due to human activity.
In 2019, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) included scaly-foot snails to its Red List of life at danger of terminationThe snails ended up being the very first animal to be noted as “endangered” due to dangers to 2 of its 3 environment areas from deep sea mining.
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Mindy Weisberger is an editor at Scholastic and a previous Live Science channel editor and senior author. She has actually reported on basic science, covering environment modification, paleontology, biology and area. Mindy studied movie at Columbia University; prior to Live Science she produced, composed and directed media for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Her videos about dinosaurs, astrophysics, biodiversity and development appear in museums and science centers worldwide, making awards such as the CINE Golden Eagle and the Communicator Award of Excellence. Her writing has actually likewise appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post and How It Works. She is the author of the book “Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind Control,” released by Hopkins Press.
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