A SNAIL living around “black smokers” in the depths of the Indian Ocean is the only multicellular creature ever discovered that uses iron sulphide in its skeletal material.
The 5-centimetre-long snail, discovered in 2001, is so new to science it doesn’t yet have a name. While its shell is normal, it has unique tile-like scales covering its fleshy foot, reports Anders Warén at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.
The scales are composed of iron pyrite (better known as fool’s gold) and greigite, an iron sulphide mineral (Science, vol 203, p 1007). They probably protect the animal from another snail called Phymorhynchus that fires poison darts into its prey.