It figures that Nature would get there first...

[roseembolism]

A while ago, I came up with the idea of Garbage Turtles; bioengineered critters designed to eat discarded metal and glass, and secret them into neat patterns on their shells, which then would be shed for easy recycling. I did it for a different project, but I was going to adapt it for Under the Green Moon, since one of the concepts of the setting is that easy sources of ores have been used up millennia ago.

It figures nature would get there first: Scaly-foot Snail secrets iron sufides into its skeleton. It just goes to show there's very few concepts that aren't mimicking in some way something that evolution came up with.

And here's the scaly-foot snail, also know as the gold-footed snail. Isn't it cute?

Comments

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's just rocking! Thanks for posting it. Yes, he is a cute little guy. You can just upscale him for UTGM, though, and have different strains for different metals -- hunting down the elusive gold or vanadiumscale snails could be a whole plot point.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

HE'S cute, yes. Don't look at any of the other deep-sea critters on that site if you want to sleep, ever.

Going from the notes on the snail, I can see the end of of a long campaign-- the new adventurers plunk their kill down in front of the merchant, expecting their reward. He frowns, prods the snail's foot with a stick, and says, "That's pyrite-- a FOOL'S gold-footed snail. What are you trying to pull on this old timer?"

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Now I'm thinking of special snail breeds that concentrate radioactives -- valuable, and dangerous. "Yes, guys, you beat the monster and get its valuable treasure metal, then you die of radiation poisoning carting it back to town."

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Right there on the level with Poul Anderson's trolls that turn radioactive when they are transmuted into rock by the sun (and imagine how different D&D might have been if that rule had been used).

I can definitely see folk sayings along the lines of "Don't go fishing for the glowing snails"...especially if those snails had distinctive coloration. Like say, a trefoil marking on the back.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

that's a key to several elements I'm working with; cultures turning to biological methods both to scavenge resources and because a lot of the older material methods have to deal with resource scarcity.

Note that resource scarcity doesn't even have to mean the materials are gone, just locked up in manners that are difficult to work with. Compare working on a low-temperature forge with iron ore vs. high-temperature steel, for example. And that's leaving out exotic crap like single-crystal iron, or exotic laminates.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

All I really need to do is change that measuring scale to Meters instead of centimeters, change those scales to jointed legs and..."GARTHIM! CRUSH THE GELFLINGS!""

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! :((((