The whole tongue of the "wandering meatloaf"
A new study has found that a strange mollusk affectionately known as a "wandering meatloaf" whose teeth consist of a rare iron ore that was previously only found on rocky coastlines.
The researchers found a rare iron ore called "santabarbaraite" in the teeth of the herbivorous mollusk Cryptochiton stelleri. The Golden Boot stone turtle is known as the "wandering meatloaf" because of its reddish-brown body, up to 14 inches (about 36 centimeters) long, and an oval shape with a shell.
Golden Boot Stone Turtle
"This discovery reveals how the Golden Boot stone turtle scrapes food from the rocks," the researchers said. Derk Joester, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern Illinois University and senior author of the study, said in a statement: "'santabbaraite' has a high water content, which makes it low density and robust. ”
The "wandering patty" also has a giant Pacific stone turtle and a giant rubber boot stone turtle, the largest known species of stone turtle, a marine mollusk with an oval, flattened body and shell made up of overlapping plates, like an insectivore. Stone turtles are known for their unusually hard teeth, which attach to their soft, flexible tongue-like teeth. In search of food, the stone turtle scrapes its tooth-covered tongue on rocks to catch algae and other foods.
Scanning electron microscopy image of the front of the tongue with mature teeth
Jost and his colleagues had studied the teeth of stone turtles, but they wanted to learn more about the trachetes— hollow structures that resemble the roots of human teeth. Connecting the super-hard and flexible tooth and tongue membrane hard tooth tips of the stone turtle, the researchers wrote, they analyzed the teeth of arapaima through a number of high-tech techniques, including synchrotron light sources and transmission electron microscopy.
These analyses revealed "santabarbaraite" on the stone turtle's tether. Jost said: "The presence of this mineral has only been found in geological specimens in a very small amount and has never been found in the biological context. ”
"This discovery shows how this strange stone turtle used its entire teeth to collect food, not just the super hard, durable cup," the researchers said. ”
The mouth of a stone turtle, the tooth tongue is inside
Next, the team tried to reproduce the chemical composition of the stylus with ink designed specifically for 3D printing. The study's first author, Linus Stegbauer, a postdoc in Jost's lab, developed the ink with a biopolymer extracted from the stone turtle's teeth by mixing iron and phosphate ions. Stegerbauer, now principal investigator at the Institute for Interface Engineering and Plasma Technology at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, found the experiment to be effective, printing super-hard, hard, and durable materials as long as scientists mix the ink immediately before printing.
3D printing of bionic composites
Jost said: "As nanoparticles form in biopolymers, it becomes stronger and stickier. This mixture can be easily used for printing and then dried in air to become a hard final material. ”