Right after the earlier comment, I want it off to Pinterest, as I tend to go from site to site zigzagging around aimlessly, sometimes while still typing a comment here! (to look something up, find a pic)
Anywho, I see a picture of this, and I figured it was speculative evolution trying a little tooooo hard, a snail that lives in volcanoes with an iron shell to do so?
But then I see other pictures, and I'm like, hold up, this is real?
With all this AI crap lately, sometimes it's easy to dismiss authentic stuff as such as well...
Turns out the volcano snail/scaley-foot snail/pangolin snail is a deep sea vent dweller in the vicinity of India, and symbiotic bacteria deposit an iron sulfide layer on its shell as well as on the scales on its foot. Unfortunately due to deep sea mining, this unique gastropod is endangered.
Reminds me, I've been meaning to ask, are there any streams catering to interesting lesser known animal oddities on this site? Like that rain frog you used to post?
