While many people think that snails are slow and boring, volcano snail shows otherwise. These gastropods are slow but they are definitely not boring. The volcano snail must be the animal that you should know about because they are already endangered. Here you are looking at a badass and deep-sea gastropod that is gifted with iron for foot. That’s right, and you are going to find out many more interesting things about these cool mollusks below.
1Appearance
A volcano snail has no eyes, and its mouth is a circular ring of muscles when contracted and closed. It can grow to a size from 0.5 to 4.5 centimeters, with an average length of 3.2 centimeters. Being a badass, the shell of this snail consists of 3 layers, each of which is formed from different materials. The outer layer is iron sulfide, the middle layer is equivalent to the organic periostracum, and the innermost layer is aragonite. Its outer layer is thick and black while the innermost layer is milky white in color. Depending on the ratio of iron, greigite, pyrite, and sulfide in the vent water, their colors can range from white, gold, or black. Each layer has its own job to ensure the snail’s survival. For example, the middle organic layer absorbs mechanical strain and energy generated by a squeezing attack from predators like crabs.
However, the most unusual feature of these gastropods is the foot, it is being armored with hundreds of iron-materialized sclerites. These sclerites give a very bizarre look to the foot, and each of them is around 5 millimeters in length. Simply put, the foot of a volcano snail is covered in iron plates. Its foot is large and red in color, and it cannot withdraw the foot entirely into the shell due to sclerites. The nickname iron foot is just perfect for these snails, you won’t see anything like this in any other animals.
2Feeding & Habitats
You must wonder what volcano snails eat, they don’t. These iron men of the ocean have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in their esophageal glands. In exchange for the shelter, the bacteria produce energy for them. Not to mention that they have underdeveloped digestive systems, and they really don’t need to eat. Their radula is weak and they have a very simple digestive tract, food won’t be any useful anyway. And because housing the endosymbiotic bacteria that supply their nutrition needs is important, their esophageal gland is a thousand times larger than other snail species.
Despite the name, volcano snails are marine animals that live in the deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean. The home of volcano snails is adjacent to acidic and reducing fluid, on the walls of black-smoker chimneys that emit minerals. They live at depths of around 2,400 to 2,900 meters so it is uncommon to come across one. The deep-sea vents can be as hot as 400 degrees, and that is the heat tolerance of these snails. Volcano snails are sedentary and solitary, and they are simultaneous hermaphrodites so each individual can produce both egg and sperm cells. And, of course, they can self-fertilize. These snails are endangered due to risks from deep-sea mining of their vent habitat.
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