Alien world right here on Earth

[avram]

Thanks to bruceb for the link to this National Geographic story about an armored sea snail. In addition to the shell that most snails have, this one’s also got magnetic iron scales covering its underbody and foot. As with so many weird creatures, this was discovered in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, a hostile alien environment we don’t have to go into space to find. The photo of the as-yet-unnamed beastie looks a whole lot like something out of Farscape.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

My first thought on seeing the picture was that really looks like something from the Cambrian explosion. I wasn't surprised to see that in the text, either. Weird, indeed.