Race to exploit the world’s seabed set to wreak havoc on marine life

New research warns that 'blue acceleration' - a global goldrush to claim the ocean floor - is already impacting on the environment.

The scaly-foot snail is one of Earth's strangest creatures. It lives more than 2,300 metres below the surface of the sea on a trio of deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Here it has evolved a remarkable form of protection against the crushing, grim conditions found at these Stygian depths. It grows a shell made of iron.

Discovered in 1999, the multi-layered iron sulphide armour of Chrysomallon squamiferum - which measures a few centimetres in diameter - has already attracted the interest of the US defence department, whose scientists are now studying its genes in a bid to discover how it grows its own metal armour.