Any other animal develop metal armor, besides this recently discovered snail?

[Revtim]

http://www.sciencenews.org/20031108/fob1.asp

An as-yet-unnamed species of snail living around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the Indian Ocean bears an unusual suit of armor forged from the dissolved minerals spewing into its seafloor habitat.

The sides of the snail’s foot are covered with scales that range up to 8 millimeters in length and overlap like roof tiles, says Anders Warén, a marine biologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.

Has there been any other animal discovered that evolved natural metal armor?

[Tranquilis]

Now that’s just nifty!

[Earthworm_Jim]

Not only that, but it doesn’t even eat!!

This species doesn’t even bother to eat. Instead, the animals gain energy from symbiotic bacteria that live within the cells of a gland in their esophagus, says Warén.
…
The bacteria harbored in the gland oxidize dissolved sulfides that are absorbed through the snail’s gills, says Shana K. Goffredi, a marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif.

Nifty, indeed!

[Sofa_King]

I’m probably being too nitpicky about it, but calcium, the basic building blocks of our own skeletons and the shells of many other critters fall under Group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the Alkali Earth Metals. The Alkali Earth Metals are highly reactive metals, notably with water, but they are, technically, metals of a sort.

[Brainiac]

There’s a similar thing going on where small organisms are making gold nuggets (honest) from underwater volcano vent water.

‘Gold Bug’ Sheds Light on How Some Gold Deposits Formed