Shells Grind Through Rock

Biological Strategy

Common piddock

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Move in/on Solids

To obtain needed resources or escape predators, some living systems must move on solid substances, some must move within them, and others must do both. Solids vary in their form; they can be soft or porous like leaves, sand, skin, and snow, or hard like rock, ice, or tree bark. Movement can involve a whole living system, such as an ostrich running across the ground or an earthworm burrowing through the soil. It can also involve just part of a living system, such as a mosquito poking its mouthparts into skin. Solids vary in smoothness, stickiness, moisture content, density, etc, each of which presents different challenges. As a result, living systems have adaptations to meet one, and sometimes multiple, challenges. For example, some insects must be able to hold onto both rough and slippery leaf surfaces due to the diversity in their environment.

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Birds

Class Aves (“bird”): Eagles, hawks, sparrows, parrots

Birds are evolutionary engineering marvels. They are descended from dinosaurs, but are far from our idea of heavy, scaly reptiles. Of the specific adaptions that set them apart, most notable is flight—although some mammals can fly, birds take the prize for abundance in the skies. Many birds have hollow, lightweight skeletons and specially-designed wings to help them stay aloft. They also have feathers made of keratin that help them stay warm, attract mates, and improve navigation and aerodynamics in flight. In contrast to their dinosaur ancestors, they lack true teeth and have replaced them with specialized beaks and bills.

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The shell of the piddock grinds through rock using hard shell projections.

Image: Michael C. Rygel /

Angelwing and associated burrows in friable sandstone exposed along the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

Image: Michael C. Rygel /

Angelwing and associated burrows in friable sandstone exposed along the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

“Some piddocks (e.g. Pholas dactylus) slowly bore themselves into solid rock. They use their foot as a lever by which they move their shells, which are provided with extremely hard surface projections, back and forth to scrape the rock and slowly hollow out a burrow.” (Pallasmaa 1995:59)

Last Updated September 14, 2016

References

Book

Animal Architecture

Museum of Finnish Architecture | 22/04/2014 | Ingo Arndt

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