This Snail Built Its Own Metal Armor (Thanks, Volcanoes)
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This Snail Built Its Own Metal Armor (Thanks, Volcanoes)
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In this Volcano Minisode, Katy introduces one of the most extreme animals on Earth: the scaly-foot gastropod, a deep-sea snail that literally builds metal armor from volcanic hydrothermal vents. Found over a mile below the ocean’s surface, this snail survives crushing pressure, toxic heat, and total darkness—all thanks to a symbiotic relationship with bacteria and its one-of-a-kind iron shell.
🧪 How does a snail use volcanic metals to build armor?
🌋 What makes hydrothermal vents so hostile—and so essential to life?
🧫 And who’s really in charge here… the snail or the bacteria living inside it?
This episode is a deep dive into extreme evolution, powered by volcanoes and gut flora. It’s weird, real, and one of the coolest stories in nature.
👉 This is episode 4 of 6 in our Volcano Minisodes series—bite-sized, bizarre, and bursting with molten-hot science facts.
🎧 Listen now to meet Earth’s most metal mollusk.
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