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Holy Crap, Nature! of the day.
Jan. 9th, 2011 09:01 pmIn our corner "Things that are not yet PokeMon but certainly should be!" we've already discussed the rather Grass-Type-like symbiosis of Salamanders and algae and of the Kleptoplasty phenomenon by which the sea slug Elysia chlorotica yoinks chloroplasts from its prey and utilizes them to photosynthesize. Today we will cover something I never thought I'd hear of - an IRL Steel-type PokeMon.
Crysomallon squamiferum, also known as the scaly-foot gastropod, is a deep-sea snail living at the foot of 'black smokers' in the Kairei hydrothermal vent field in the Indian ocean. Why is it called Scaly-foot? Because... look at it.
The snail's 'foot' is entirely protected by small scales (called sclerites) up to 8mm long. These things are mineralized - they are composed of Iron Sulfide minerals - pyrite and greigite. No other animal uses these materials in its skeleton.
In addition to this, the snail's shell has a three-layered structure: its internal layer is aragonite, a calcium mineral, with a thick intermediate organic layer above it, followed by an external layer of the same iron sulfide mineral.
All this renders this snail's defense stat ridiculously high against whatever predators (including the infamous cone snails) may attack it. The origin of the minerals appears to be from the hydrothermal vents rich in these minerals - and supposedly the military is looking into ways of developing new forms of armor based on this structure.
Dayum, nature, you awesome.
Crysomallon squamiferum, also known as the scaly-foot gastropod, is a deep-sea snail living at the foot of 'black smokers' in the Kairei hydrothermal vent field in the Indian ocean. Why is it called Scaly-foot? Because... look at it.
The snail's 'foot' is entirely protected by small scales (called sclerites) up to 8mm long. These things are mineralized - they are composed of Iron Sulfide minerals - pyrite and greigite. No other animal uses these materials in its skeleton.
In addition to this, the snail's shell has a three-layered structure: its internal layer is aragonite, a calcium mineral, with a thick intermediate organic layer above it, followed by an external layer of the same iron sulfide mineral.
All this renders this snail's defense stat ridiculously high against whatever predators (including the infamous cone snails) may attack it. The origin of the minerals appears to be from the hydrothermal vents rich in these minerals - and supposedly the military is looking into ways of developing new forms of armor based on this structure.
Dayum, nature, you awesome.
