A deep-sea snail armors its own foot in iron sulfide plates

The scaly-foot snail survives only at a few hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, where hundreds of iron-mineralized scales cover its foot alongside an iron-reinforced shell. In 2019 it became the first species ever listed as endangered specifically because of the threat from deep-sea mining.

— IUCN Red List, Scaly-foot gastropod — IUCN Red List assessment, 2019