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The scaly-foot gastropod, tentatively Crysomallon squamiferum, is an unusual snail armored with iron-mineral scales. It was discovered in 2001 on the bases of black smokers at the Kairei hydrothermal vent field, on the Central Indian Ridge, just north of the Rodrigues Triple Point; about 2420 meters below the surface. The snail's foot is protected by scale-shaped sclerites composed of the iron sulfides greigite and pyrite; no other animal is known to use iron sulfides in this way.
[edit] Further reading
- Pickrell, John. "Armor-Plated Snail Discovered in Deep Sea", National Geographic News, 2003-11-07.
- Van Dover CL, Humphris SE, Fornari D, Cavanaugh CM, Collier R, Goffredi SK, Hashimoto J, Lilley MD, Reysenbach AL, Shank TM, Von Damm KL, Banta A, Gallant RM, Gotz D, Green D, Hall J, Harmer TL, Hurtado LA, Johnson P, McKiness ZP, Meredith C, Olson E, Pan IL, Turnipseed M, Won Y, Young CR 3rd, Vrijenhoek RC (2001). "Biogeography and ecological setting of Indian Ocean hydrothermal vents". Science 294 (5543): 818-23. doi:10.1126/science.1064574. PMID 11557843
- Warén A, Bengtson S, Goffredi SK, Van Dover CL (2003). "A hot-vent gastropod with iron sulfide dermal sclerites". Science 302 (5647): 1007. doi:10.1126/science.1087696. PMID 14605361
- Goffredi SK, Warén A, Orphan VJ, Van Dover CL, Vrijenhoek RC (2004). "Novel forms of structural integration between microbes and a hydrothermal vent gastropod from the Indian Ocea". Appl Environ Microbiol 70 (5): 3082-90. doi:10.1128/AEM.70.5.3082-3090.2004. PMID 15128570
- Suzuki Y, Kopp RE, Kogure T, Suga A, Takai K, Tsuchida S, Ozaki N, Endo K, Hashimoto J, Kato Y, Mizota C, Hirata T, Chiba H, Nealson KH, Horikoshi K, Kirschvink JL (2006). "Sclerite formation in the hydrothermal-vent scaly-foot gastropod - possible control of iron sulfide biomineralization by the animal". Earth Planet Sci Lett 242: 39-50. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2005.11.029.
