Shipworm that eats rock instead of wood found

[Still Waters]

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has found and identified a species of shipworm that eats rock instead of wood. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study of the bivalve and what they found.

Shipworms are water-dwelling bivalve mollusks—they are well known because of their tendency to chew through wood and digest it. They came to prominence during the heyday of wooden ships—the small mollusks would bore holes in them, at times making them unfit to sail. More recently, they are known for making holes in piers and other wooden structures used in the water. In this new effort, the researchers have found a species of shipworm that does not eat wood at all, but instead bores through limestone.

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-shipworm-wood-river-philippines.html

[Stiff]

So there was some truth in that years-old joke about the Irish woodworm found dead in a brick? I knew it.

[SHaYap]

stoned worms? 

~

[Jon the frog]

Some shipworm does not eat like Kuphus polythalamia, they rely on a beneficial symbiotic bacteria living in its gills. The bacteria use the hydrogen sulfide as energy to produce organic carbons that feed the shipworms.

Edited June 21, 2019 by Jon the frog

[fred_mc]

Interesting. Maybe they could live on other planets, like Mars, too. There are lots of rocks there.

[TrikeTrash]

NO KILL I

[Sir Smoke aLot]

Sand which they let out of digestive system might give us superior quality silicon.

[Jon the frog]

12 hours ago, Sir Smoke aLot said:

Sand which they let out of digestive system might give us superior quality silicon.

Lots of tropical beach sand are the produce of digestion of coral by parrots fish