However, the scientific community didn’t give the gastropod an official scientific name - in other words, a genus and a species - until 2015. The scientific journal also claimed that they congregated around the so-called “hydrothermal vents” of the Indian Ocean. At the time of its original discovery, Science claimed that it was merely part of the biome of the Indian Ocean. The Nuts and Bolts of the Volcano Snailįirst discovered in 2001, the volcano snail was originally dubbed the scaly-foot gastropod, a name that most in the scientific community call it to this day.
Let’s take a look at what we’ve found out about this tiny ecological wonder who isn’t afraid of the literal depths and fires of hell. Whatever you choose to call this squiggly little tough guy, it lives in the deepest parts of some of the world’s hottest underwater volcanic vents with a shell of iron sulfide to keep alive in extreme heat conditions.Īnd recently, for the first time in history, its genome has been sequenced by scientists - solving what was once one of the scientific world’s biggest mysteries. Sometimes, it’s also known as the scaly-foot gastropod, the scaly-foot snail, or the sea pangolin. Its scientific name is Chrysomallon squamiferum, but you can call it the volcano snail. Kentaro Nakamura, et al./Wikimedia commons The volcano snail’s astonishing iron shell helps it to survive the white-hot hydrothermal vents it calls home.
0 kommentar(er)
