{"id":3512,"date":"2023-08-23T11:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2023-08-09T20:15:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T00:15:35","slug":"let-us-consider-the-scaly-foot-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2023\/08\/let-us-consider-the-scaly-foot-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Us Consider the Scaly-foot Snail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The scaly-foot snail (also known as the \u201csea pangolin\u201d or \u201cvolcano snail\u201d) is a deep-sea hydrothermal-vent snail. It doesn\u2019t just differ greatly from other marine gastropods, or from other deep-sea gastropods, or from other gastropods in general; it differs greatly from everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The species was discovered in 2001, living on the bases of black smokers in the Indian Ocean, and wasn\u2019t properly named until 2015. It lives in the  \u201cmidnight zone<\/a>\u201d of the ocean, an abyss darker than the far reaches of our solar system<\/a>, where the only light comes from the bioluminescence of other animals. To survive down here you need to be your own biome. In this case, that means housing symbiotic gammaproteobacteria in its esophagus. These bacteria subsist on sulfur, and in turn sustain the scaly-foot snail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i.e., The scaly-foot snail lives on the largesse of bacteria that eat brimstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now about those scales and it\u2019s shell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are made of iron. The scales on its foot overlap like roofing tiles, forming a flexible plate-armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cEach shell layer appears to contribute to the effectiveness of the snail’s defence in different ways. The middle organic layer appears to absorb mechanical strain and energy generated by a squeezing attack (for example by the claws of a crab), making the shell much tougher. The organic layer also acts to dissipate heat. Features of this composite material are in focus of researchers for possible use in civilian and military protective applications.\u201d <\/p>\n\u201c<\/em>Scaly-foot gastropod<\/a>\u201d via Wikipedia<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These are the only living animal known to use iron in their skeleton. That shell rusts as they age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are under two inches, mostly. Those two smooth, pink, forked \u201ccephalic tentacles\u201d aren\u2019t eye-stalks, as they might be on land snails; the scaly-foot snail has no eyes. It has no copulatory organs, either. But it nonetheless has \u201chigh fecundity,\u201d as it is a \u201csimultaneous hermaphrodite\u201d\u2014it has both types of sex organs at the same time, and can produce both types of gametes within the same breeding season. If told to go fuck itself, the scaly-foot snail can and will, and won\u2019t take offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That might be because it has a bigger heart\u2014relative to its body\u2014then any other animal, around 4% of it\u2019s volume.\u00a0 By comparison, a whale or human heart is closer to 1\/4 or 1\/3 that proportion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us consider the scaly-foot snail. They\u2014for each of them is most decidedly a they<\/em>\u2014have iron bones on the outside, and are armored where their cousins are so notoriously gooey.\u00a0 They thrive on brimstone down in the hell-fires bubbling deep beneath everything we know or recognize.\u00a0 They are so little, and so alien, but they\u2019ve got a while lotta love to give.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lesson here, I\u2019m sure of it\u2014but I\u2019m helpless to articulate it in any clear way, try as I might.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scaly-foot snail (also known as the \u201csea pangolin\u201d or \u201cvolcano snail\u201d) is a deep-sea hydrothermal-vent snail. It doesn\u2019t just differ greatly from other marine gastropods, or from other deep-sea gastropods, or from other gastropods in general; it differs greatly from everything. The species was discovered in 2001, living on the bases of black smokers … Continue reading “Let Us Consider the Scaly-foot Snail”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11],"tags":[181,575,77,116,904,572,935,933,934],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/a2mi.social\/@dave0\/110939737152006041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3518,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions\/3518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}