Scientists fabricate composites that combine high strength and bioactivity inspired by the cortical bone

Researchers have created scaffolds with enhanced strength by fabricating 20 vol% polydopamine-modified nano hydroxyapatite (pDA-nHA), featuring a distinctive lamellar structure. These scaffolds were then immersed in a polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) synthesis system for reinforcement, offering an innovative approach to both augment the mechanical robustness of the material and enhance the bioactivity of PEKK. Nano hydroxyapatite (nHA), the primary inorganic component of bone widely utilized in bone tissue engineering, suffers from poor mechanical properties when used alone. Conversely, polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), a high-performance polymer approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and used in dentistry and biomaterial science, struggles with bioinertia, affecting its osteogenesis applications. In a study published in the journal Supramolecular Materials, researchers from Sichuan University, China, introduced pDA-nHA/PEKK composites that combine high strength and bioactivity.

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Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #232

Brought to you by a marine biologist and some big science words...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

I imagine it's easy as hell for ACPC to just continually make sea stars for their fishing events, but honestly, it makes no sense. How the hell does one catch a sea star on hook and line? No one knows, and yet, here's another one - the White Starfish

The white starfish appeared in ACPC for Fishing Tourney 21 - Starry - in December of 2019. During the tournament, you could catch 3 new sea stars - yellow, blue, and this white one. I'm sure these sea stars were not actually meant to represent any true species. Though I'm one to search out a species anyway, this time I'll just put this guy in Class Asteroidea - the Class representing Sea Stars - and leave it at that. I'd much rather talk about biomineralization, since the sea star is a great candidate to talk about it.

Now, we could get into some serious existential crises thinking about all the ways life is weird and beyond comprehension. When you start delving into biomineralization, cell bio, chemistry, etc. the separate topics that explain how life "works", you quickly realize that we're all made of inorganic stuff - stuff that isn't alive and never was. Throw those components into some salty soup, mix it around, and zap it with some electricity and suddenly that inorganic soup starts acting on its own to get more of that energy. That's basically what life is.

So, even though we're alive now, we still grow structures and rely on structures that are made of inorganic stuff - stuff that is not alive and never was. And even though they are growing in- and outside of you, it's not necessarily "alive". That's basically the gist of biomineralization - where living things produce minerals, from microscopic structures, like the collagen keeping our body glued together, to the hard shells of mollusks like snails and clams. Skeletons - of the exo *and* endo kind - are pretty important, too.

And that's where echinoderms, like sea stars, really shine. These invertebrates have an endoskeleton - skeleton on the inside - just like us vertebrates technically. These skeletons are made of ossicles, which are calcite-based plates that give echino's structure and make them hard and generally unappetizing to most predators. So yeah, these ossicles are just elaborate chunks of calcite.

By yeowatzup - Icon Seastar, Pulau Hantu, Singapore, CC BY 2.0, (left)

Calcium is a very common element in bio-minerals. It's a major component in mollusk shells, arthropod exoskeletons, coral skeletons (and therefore entire coral reef ecosystems), and more.

We vertebrates are more partial to phosphate and mixing it with other elements, including calcium, to create our bones and cover our teeth with enamel, the hardest substance in our bodies.

Still other common elements in the Earth are used to create these bio-minerals. One of the most amazing is the use of silicon to create shells of glass. These glass shells are one of the defining features of diatoms, a type of phytoplankton, or plant-like-plankton. They are protists, NOT actually plants. Some sponges also use silica to make bio-glass.

By Prof. Gordon T. Taylor, Stony Brook University - corp2365, NOAA Corps Collection, Public Domain

I could go on and on...but you get it. You're a collection of minerals holding up a bag of biological soup. Congrats.

And there you have it. Fascinating stuff, no?

While researching for upcoming fish facts I ended up going down a rabbit hole on parrotfish teeth, and I need to share this information in another form than just a fish fact. This stuff is unbelievable. You know the beak of the parrotfish, right? It's formed from the fused teeth of the parrotfish, as an adaptation to have ample biting surface to scrape off and chew on coral, their main food source.

A close-up of the beak of a parrotfish. It has this honeycomb pattern which I find very cool.

Well. To constantly chew on coral, they must have some pretty hard teeth, right? And they indeed do: the teeth of the parrotfish are made up of a mineral called fluorapatite, which forms intricate, chainmail-like woven structures on a microscopic level. Fluorapatite just so happens to be the second hardest biomineral found. This stuff, the parrotfish's teeth? A square inch of the parrotfish's teeth can withstand a whopping 530 TONS OF PRESSURE!!! That's the weight of 88 ELEPHANTS on top of a single square inch!!!! That's crazy, right!!?? The only biomineral that is tougher is the teeth of chitons, that is the single tougher biological thing in the whole world!!! Not only that, but the stiffness and hardness of the teeth increases the more we get closer to the tip (as the mineral fibers get closer and closer to one another), the very tips of the teeth even surpass the chiton teeth in stiffness!!!

Here are pictures produced through a process called PIC mapping, which shows the size and orientation of crystal fibers at the tip of the teeth.

That feels like it shouldn't be right, no? You'd think that the toughest biominerals in the world would belong to, like, the skull of an animal that rams into rocks or maybe the shell of some animal, not the teeth! The teeth of chitons and parrotfish out of all animals no less! Who would've guessed that the diet of "rock animal" would make the parrotfish require some of the toughest dentition the world has ever seen, huh? That right there is one super good reason why you should never stick your finger in the mouth of one.

Every day I am blown away by how amazing fishes are....

Wet Beast Wednesday: parrotfish

Which fish hangs out on a mermaid pirate's shoulder and repeats what she says in a high-pitched voice? The parrotfish, of course. Or at least in fiction they should (certainly will in my D&D world). But even in real life, parrotfish are still pretty interesting.

(Image: a common parrotfish (Scarus psittacus) seen from the side in front of rocks and corals. It is a brightly-colored fish, mainly light blue but with patches and stripes of yellow and pink on the fins. Its mouth is open, revealing what appears to be a beak. End ID)

Parrotfish are fish famous for their mouths and eating habits. There are about 90 species known. While they were historically considered their own taxonomic family, they have since been reclassified a subset of the wrasse family and there is still some debate on how to classify them. Most species are on the smaller size, but a few can get very large. The largest species is the green humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) at 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) and 75 kg (165 lbs) while the smallest species is the bluelip parrotfish (Cryptotomus roseus) reaching 13 cm (5 in). I could not find an average weight for the bluelips. What makes parrotfish really stand out visually is their colors and their mouths. Most species are very brightly colored, with distinct markings and males are usually more brightly colored than females. Their mouths are dominated by what appear to be beaks, which gave them their common name. These beaks are actually made of approximately 1,000 teeth arranged in 15 rows. As the teeth wear out, they drop off and are replaced by the row behind them. The teeth are made of fluorapatite, the second hardest biomineral int the world. To support their hardness, the fluorapatite crystals that make up the teeth are woven together in a structure very similar to chainmail, resulting in very hard teeth that measure in at a 5 on the Mohs scale of hardness. For reference, iron is a 4 and higher numbers are harder. The teeth can also handle 530 tons of pressure. You could put the weight of 200 black rhinos on a tooth and it would be fine. The beaks are powerful enough to bite through rock. Which is what they use it for, but more on that below. Another unusual feature of parrotfish is how they sleep. Some species make their own sleeping bags, which would be adorable if they weren't made of mucus. The mucus is produced using glands in the gills and looks like a transparent bubble. The fish sleeps in the mucus cocoon and when it wakes up, it eats the cocoon. There have been several proposed benefits of the cocoon. It contains chemicals that harm skin parasites while also providing a barrier that keeps new parasites from reaching the fish. It also likely blocks the fish's scent, helping it hide from predators.

(Image: a green humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) swimming over yellow coral. It is large and mostly a uniform green color, except for the front of its head, which is pink. It has a large, fleshy lump on the top of its head. End ID)

(Image: a close-up of a parrotfish's beak. The top and bottom beaks are divided into two halves, left and right. The beak is bade of small, circular teeth that overlap each other. End ID)

(Image: another common parrotfish seen from the front. It is inside of a mucus cocoon, which appears as a transparent bubble around the fish. Bits of sand dot the cocoon's surface. End ID)

Parrotfish live worldwide, though the majority of species are found in the Indo-Pacific. They live in warm, shallow waters with lots of rocky reefs, especially coral reefs. They use those powerful teeth to eat and what they eat most is algae. There are three main types of feeding behavior: excavating, scraping, and browsing. Excavators bite into rocks to get their food, scrapers crape food off of the surface of the rocks, and browsers go after larger food sources like seagrass and sponges. Some of the larger parrotfish species also make coral a large part of their diet. When they eat, they naturally get rock in their mouths, moreso in excavators. Because their food clings to the rock, spitting the rocks out would deny them food. Instead, parrotfish use pharyngeal teeth set in their throats to grind the rock into sand, which then passes through the digestive tract. When it exists the digestive tract, it is in the form of fine grains of rock. Or to put it another way, parrotfish eat rock and poop sand. A single parrotfish can produce up to 40 kg (88lbs) of sand yearly, and bigger species can produce even more than that. The process of rock being broken down by living things is called bioerosion and parrotfish are one of the most famous sources of bioerosion. The sand they produce can serve as the basis for new growth of coral or other species and helps reinforce nearby islands. In places like Hawai'i, the Caribbean, and the Maldives, it's estimated that up to 80% of the famous white sand is produced by parrotfish and they serve as a major source of incoming earth to support the islands. This makes parrotfish ecosystem engineers. Their eating of algae is also majorly important to their ecosystems. Algae can overgrow and smother delicate ecosystems like coral reefs and seagrass beds and decaying algae draws oxygen out of the water. Parrotfish help the health of their environments by keeping the algae population at healthy levels. Parrotfish also eat seaweeds and sponges that grow much faster than coral and can smother coral reefs. Parrotfish are considered keystone species in many reefs, including the great barrier reef and their population dropping correlates with reduced health of reefs. Damaged reefs tent to have larger parrotfish populations and those populations drop as the reef recovers.

(Image: a group of many parrotfish feeding on coral. They are all the same species and are mostly blue, with yellow heads and stripes on the face. They appear to be biting the the coral. End ID)

Parrotfish are protogynous sequential hermaprodites. This means that all parrotfish are born female and can become male later in life. The transition is usually triggered when there are too many females or not enough males in a location, though in some species any fish that reaches a certain size will become male. Some parrotfish are solitary while others are social. In social species, the social groups consist of a large male and a harem of females that he protects and claims mating rights with. Other males will attempt to fight the male for dominance via headbutting and threat displays and occasionally one of his harem members will become male to challenge him. Males are usually more colorful than females, which they use to woo females, but also puts them at greater risk of predation. If the harem leader dies and is not replaces, one member of the harem will transition to male and replace him. Many species perform courtship dances during nights of the full moon. In non-social species, males will perform displays and fight with each other to attract females. In social species, the dominant male will mate with his harem while smaller males without harems will try to sneakily woo claimed females or sneak in and mate without being noticed. Parrotfish are broadcast spawners. The female releases her eggs into the water and the males releases sperm to fertilize them. The eggs will drift on the current until settling, after which the larvae will hatch. As with most fish species, only a very few of the larvae will reach adulthood.

(Image: a Mediterranean parrotfish (Sparisoma cretense). It is mostly bright red, but with a yellow patch above the tail and a yellow stripe around the eye that runs down to the belly. A large patch behind the eye is blue. End ID)

Thankfully, most parrotfish species are not particularly endangered. The largest threat to them comes from habitat loss as pollution and climate change harms coral reefs. Reintroducing parrotfish to damaged reefs helps them recover. All species are edible, though there is no commercial fishery for them. While parrotfish are capable of delivering powerful bites, there are few reports of humans getting bit. That being said, I found one case where someone had skin on his penis bitten off by a parrotfish. And yes, that link has pictures. Enjoy.

(Image: a blue parrotfish (Scarus coeruleus) looking at the camera. It is a blue fish with darker patches around the eye. Its snout is bulbous and the beak points downward. End ID).

research related and and life ramblings about microorganisms and my experience as a trans person

Falcatamacaris bellua is not, as it may seem at first glance, a fictive trilobite designed by a 6-year old, but a large (~10 cm) arthropod from the Weeks Formation (early Cambrian) notably distinguished by curved pleural spines (giving it its name*), a weakly biomineralized cuticle, and an unwillingness to be classified precisely.

Bonus views of the quick 3D model I made as a drawing reference:

References and notes:

*name which, by the way, is based on an incorrect use of the latin falcatus,-a,-um in its unexplainably inflected form falcatam, which exasperates me disproportionately (name should be Falcatacaris (how did the reviewers not give them shit for that mistake?)) (i am experiencing several taxonomy-related annoyances these days (perhaps i just need something inconsequential on which to take out my anger (anyway))).

Available fossil material of Falcatamacaris only features the dorsal carapace along with limited evidence for 3 cephalic pairs of limbs (but apparently no antennae) (Ortega-Hernández et al. 2015). The walking appendage morphology and arrangement depicted here is therefore only speculative and based on a generalized artiopodan (a broad group including trilobites and friends, within which Falcatamacaris has an uncertain position), after Sein & Selden (2012).

References:

Ortega-Hernández, J., Lerosey-Aubril, R., Kier, C., & Bonino, E. (2015). A rare non-trilobite artiopodan from the Guzhangian (Cambrian Series 3) Weeks Formation Konservat-Lagerstätte in Utah, USA. Palaeontology, 58(2), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12136

Stein, M., & Selden, P. A. (2012). A restudy of the Burgess Shale (Cambrian) arthropod Emeraldella brocki and reassessment of its affinities. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 10(2), 361–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2011.566634

Hang on, is there more than one definition of mineral? Like, when you said they aren't organic, I immediately thought of pearls, 'cause they're classed as a mineraloid, right? Or like amber (I thought it was a mineraloid, but I guess it isn't according to the IMA? Are they the only authority on minerals? Then I looked at biogenic minerals and organic minerals, and apparently those are two different things, and this was only like in the past hour, but tbh, if there's like a more clear definition and delineation, it's be useful to know the difference/categories. I can't really figure it out myself here. I honestly thought at least some minerals were organic in origin. @_@'''

Well if you’re talking about nutrition, then “mineral” has a completely different meaning, so yeah I guess so!

But regarding geology, this is what I meant by “there are tons of weird exceptions.” When you get into concepts like biomineralization, the definition of a mineral gets really complicated! Because tons of living things produce stuff that fits every definition of a mineral except that it happened through a biological process. Is the aragonite in seashells a mineral? The calcium oxalate in kidney stones? What about the silica in diatoms? What about your bones? Should ore deposits count if they were created by bacteria? And the answer the scientific community has come up with is... sometimes we count them as minerals and sometimes we don't, and it's actually not all that important!

Here’s a silly thought: ice only counts as a mineral when it is naturally occurring, because the definition of a mineral is a naturally occurring non-organic solid with a defined chemical composition and an orderly molecular structure. So the ice on a pond in winter is a mineral, but the ice cubes in your freezer are not, even though they’re the exact same stuff! And to follow through with that thought: we humans are causing climate change which results in colder winters. So you can make a really solid argument that the ice on a pond in winter is NOT a mineral anymore, because it formed due to human interference instead of natural processes.

And when you start to think about that, you realize that this is not a problem with nature, but a problem with words!

The thing is, the word “mineral” is a concept we humans made up to try and describe the world around us. We can give it as rigid a definition as we like, but the real world will always be more messy and complicated. Nature doesn’t actually care about categorizing things into “minerals” and “not minerals.” Nature just makes stuff.

Raptorial appendages of the Cambrian apex predator Anomalocaris canadensis are built for soft prey and speed

Published July 5th 2023

A study using computer technologies to investigate the ability of Anomalocaris canadensis feeding appendage and test its morphofunctional limits. 

Examples of Anomalocaris canadensis specimens.

kinematic models of the Anomalocaris canadensis appendage in comparison with Mastigoproctus giganteus and Heterophrynus elaphus raptorial appendages.

biomechanical model and solved Anomalocaris canadensis FEMs showing von Mises brick stress maps in lateral view.

Computational fluid dynamics simulation results for the Anomalocaris canadensis frontal appendages.

This means Anomalocaris canadensis frontal appendages incapable of crushing biomineralized prey, suggesting that they targeted mobile soft-bodied prey within a well-lit water column.

Reconstruction of Anomalocaris, from

Source:

(Open access)

The history of life on Earth: 3.8 billion years of evolution.

by @LegendesCarto

The beginnings of life on Earth are still poorly understood. If the hypothesis of a contribution by meteorites of whole organisms, close to bacteria, has been put forward, it now seems highly improbable. Organic matter would have been formed by the chemical evolution of molecules containing carbon in a hot environment, without oxygen, swept by ultraviolet radiation and electrical discharges from lightning. Interactions of this material have arisen from complex biological polymers, such as DNA and proteins, then from cells, without the sequence of events being clearly elucidated. One finds in old rocks of 3800 million years (Ma) an isotopic composition of carbon characteristic of the living world. The oldest evidence of primitive life are bacterial microfossils and fossils of stromatolites, reefs built by bacteria, 3500 Ma old. Life would therefore have appeared very early in the history of the Earth, almost at the time of the formation of first rocks.

Throughout the Precambrian, organisms diversified: initially without a nucleus (prokaryote) and unicellular, cells with a nucleus (eukaryote) and multicellular organisms, the first plant and animal life forms appeared late. In the Cambrian, diversification accelerated and new anatomy emerged that prefigured the large groups of animals today. This milestone event was accompanied by massive biomineralization that left numerous fossil traces. Until today, organizations have continued to evolve and diversify. They have colonized all aquatic and terrestrial environments, even the most extreme, going through great extinctions followed by periods of diversification. Life is intimately linked to the terrestrial environment: bacterial photosynthesis has formed the oxygenated atmosphere and the ozone layer, forests have formed carbon reserves and affected CO2 levels. And this modification, as well as those due to geological events and meteorite impacts, has in turn influenced life. This long history continues and the threats that humans pose to the current biodiversity and their own existence will not stop the adaptation of living beings.

Glycera?

these little wormy guys have so much fucking copper it's insane. their jaws have crystallized acatamite (a copper based chloride biomineral) which makes their bites venomous. small marine wormies with sooo much copper it venoms you.

Perovskites are materials that are increasingly popular for a wide range of applications because of their remarkable electrical, optical, and photonic properties. Perovskite materials have the potential to revolutionize the fields of solar energy, sensing and detecting, photocatalysis, lasers, and others.

The properties of perovskites can be tuned for specific applications by changing their chemical composition and internal architecture, including the distribution and orientation of its crystal structure. At the moment, the ability to influence these properties is massively limited by manufacturing methods. A team of scientists at TU Dresden was able to create perovskites with unique nano-architectures and crystal properties from algae, taking advantage of years of evolution of these single-celled organisms.

Taking Advantage of the Evolution

"Unicellular organisms have responded over hundreds of millions of years to a wide range of environmental factors such as temperature, pH, and mechanical stress. As a result, some of them evolved to produce absolutely unique biomaterials that are exclusive to nature," says Dr. Igor Zlotnikov, research group leader at the B CUBE -- Center for Molecular Bioengineering who led the study. "Minerals formed by living organisms often exhibit structural and crystallographic characteristics that are far beyond the production capacities offered by current synthetic methods."

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The God Children of Ana Chapter 5: Bolide Infidelity

The Locolichi king, slightly irritated by his two previous failures, once again tried for a “proper” god child. He asked Melalo for advice to see if he could influence the outcome of the formaerem infusion. Melalo told the king that perhaps he could put Ana’s egg that had been artificially fertilized with the king’s own gametes in the blended remains of both a crustacean analogue and avian analogue then perhaps his wish would come true.

And so the king followed his son’s quackery and the infusion procedure was like the previous. From the dust rose another god child, Tculo.

Tculo was the strangest god child in appearance so far, being covered in heavily biomineralized hairs that were covered by layers of skin which held back several thousand gallons of pus. In his retracted state he resembled a spikey ball, but when one side would open to reveal eyes and a prehensile tongue his internal starfish-like skeleton would shift from a ball shape to a wheel shape.

Tculo was given the same duties as his other siblings; CEO of a continent and weeding out the “weak”. Of course, Tculo was a disease generating guardian as well. Every time a hair spike would come in contact with the ground the skin surrounding it would rupture and release puddles of pus. The lethal bacterial cocktails all caused abdominal pains and diseases. From completely eradicating the gut microbes of citizens and leading to starvation, to causing constant food poisoning and death by dehydration via diarrhea. The worst was the “Cramps Plague” which would cause internal hemorrhaging of the abdomen until the internal organs were a slurry.

As this was happening on the Locolichi homeworld, the Keshali had a new problem to face. Their moon was falling apart due to the Locolichi king constantly using it as a site for formaerem infusion events. Its orbit was changing drastically and some pieces of it were raining down onto the Keshali below.

Of course, the Locolichi king didn’t care about this.

As Tculo established himself he started to become interested in Lilyi and even began trying to court her. Lilyi, not exactly liking her arranged marriage and Melalo, even began reciprocating. This infuriated Melalo and he demanded that his father create a wife for Tculo so that he would stop flirting with Lilyi. The king, finding this the perfect excuse to once again try for a “proper” god child, obliged.

First chapter, Previous chapter, Next chapter

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Oh my god, illustrating all those spikes was a pain. Here’s sorta how he looks under them.

I have never really looked into invertebrate paleontology before, at least not specifically. So can you tell me the major differences between studying fossils of creatures with and without bones?

well, with and without bones is kind of a bad way to describe it. many invertebrates have skeletons even if they dont have vertebrate style bones. for example, arthropods have exoskeletons which serve the same purpose as our endoskeletons. the fossil record of non skeletal organisms is very poor because soft tissues break down easily. soft bodies organisms are primarily found in lagerstätten: environments of exceptional preservation. most of the invertebrates we see are biomineralized - they take minerals from the environment (especially calcium carbonate, but phosphate to an extent like us) and use that to build a skeleton. because theire bones are already made of minerals, they preserve very well - brachiopods, mollusks, corals, some sponges, echinoderms, bryozoans, and some arthropods like trilobites and their strange cousins the agnostids are some of the main things we have looked at. we have fossils of worms and chitinous arthropods, but they are rare, and often reduced to a delicate carbon film on rock. we also lose a lot of the softer parts of organisms - we have lots of clamshells but not many of the clams inside. many of the organisms we have are also oceanic. not only does sea water provide a much better ability to biomineralize, but water is often very important for fossilization in general. invertebrates are some of the most diverse animals we have, especially in the fossil record, so it is good to know about them!

also, did you know we still have crinoids and brachiopods today? they arent as diverse as they once were, but theyre still around!

Some friends and I are planning to play a superhero-themed RPG and I'm planning a girl who has limited shapeshifting to give herself features and abilities of aquatic life. Things like octopus camouflage and tentacles, bioluminescence, electric pulses, venomous stingers, etc. And I was curious if you could recommend some really strange and obscure adaptations that could be fun to use, or a source to find information on said strange adaptations :)

Oh you’re in luck, the ocean is full of crazy and cool adaptations of animals! I’m just going to be naming any and all that come to mind in a random order because upon hearing this question I got like a million ideas at once. Stargazer fishes have both electricity impulse-generation ability and venomous spines. Hagfish are a classic, they can secrete tons of super sticky slime. Boxfish can excrete poisons from their skin into the water, and their relatives pufferfishes and porcupinefishes can have several toxins in the skin and organs. Many coldwater deep sea fishes like wolf eels have antifreeze proteins in their blood to survive in the freezing water. Some fishes that sometimes live in low-oxygen environments can respire anaerobically by producing ethanol, for example crucian carps and other carps too I think (goldfish for example). Others have specially evolved swim bladders or highly vascularised tissues in the mouth or have a special derived organ of the gills that can also take in oxygen from the atmosphere to supplement low oxygen, but likely your RPG will take place on land anyway so. Parrotfish have 15 rows of teeth that form a hard beak, the beak is formed from the second strongest biomineral in the world and the parrotfish can scrape rocks and even chew coral with it. The strongest biomineral in the world belongs to chitons, a fellow aquatic mollusk that also scrapes things off of rocks. Cone snails have a venomous harpoon-like radula tooth which they can shoot (their radula “tongue” still attached) at prey and predators alike, paralysing small prey instantly and even killing humans. They even have a radula sac where they store the rest of their radulas, ready for use! Moray eels have a second, tiny pair of jaws that help with grabbing onto prey. Tunas and billfish (and some sharks) can heat up their eyes and brain to gain superior vision while hunting. Also both can change colour — many fishes do in fact. Salmonids can smell their home river while migrating back from the ocean, which requires a phenomenal smelling ability. Besides smell many fish have taste buds all over their bodies, usually focused on any barbels and their faces, like in catfish or sturgeon. Many fishes can sense electricity via ampullae of Lorenzini, famously sharks and paddlefish. Elephantfish sense and communicate with fellow elephantfishes via low frequency electricity. Many fishes have extendable mouths, lips, or jaws, like the goblin shark, slingjaw wrasse and john dory to name a few. Seahorses are ridiculously good predators — though granted, their prey is copepods — that vacuum in their prey through their tubular mouth by jerking back their head. Cuttlefish can cause seizures in their prey by rapidly changing colour. Some squids have teeth in their suckers. Zebrafish can regenerate up to 20% of its heart. Sea stars can regenerate a whole new sea star from a severed arm. Electric eels have their powerful shock, and it is even proposed that they could be able to force their prey out of hiding by generating electricity that moves their muscles.

That’s some that came to mind! And you already mentioned bioluminescence, haha! I named so many things that it’s probably best that you go see more information about each on your own, I think sources are pretty simple to find if you just look up these things with important keywords. Hope this helps!

Calcite Microcrystals in the Pineal Gland of the Human Brain: First Physical and Chemical Studies

A new form of biomineralization has been studied in the pineal gland of the human brain. It consists of small crystals that are less than 20 microm in length and that are completely distinct from the often observed mulberry-type hydroxyapatite concretions. A special procedure was developed for isolation of the crystals from the organic matter in the pineal gland. Cubic, hexagonal, and cylindrical morphologies have been identified using scanning electron microscopy. The crystal edges were sharp whereas their surfaces were very rough. Energy dispersive spectroscopy showed that the crystals contained only the elements calcium, carbon, and oxygen. Selected area electron diffraction and near infrared Raman spectroscopy established that the crystals were calcite. With the exception of the otoconia structure of the inner ear, this is the only known nonpathological occurrence of calcite in the human body. The calcite microcrystals are probably responsible for the previously observed second harmonic generation in pineal tissue sections. The complex texture structure of the microcrystals may lead to crystallographic symmetry breaking and possible piezoelectricity, as is the case with otoconia. It is believed that the presence of two different crystalline compounds in the pineal gland is biologically significant, suggesting two entirely different mechanisms of formation and biological functions. Studies directed toward the elucidation of the formation and functions, and possible nonthermal interaction with external electromagnetic fields are currently in progress.

Daikaijuverse Demaaga

Demaagas are large predatory kaijus living near volcanic regions of every islands that has kaijus.

Demaaga are large carnivorous heterodontosaurs with well developed front limbs to burrow underground at incredible speeds a long and thick tail use for balance and to whip at opponents.

Their spikes are derived from their feathers that have hardened into spikes and they are heavily biomineralized, they are used for display as they can light up their spikes during mating season but they can be used for defense against more powerful kaijus!

They can shoot powerful blasts of magma from their mouths and their back has many orifice next to their spikes and underneath they have"magma glands" to shoot many fire projectiles at their enemies!

Demaagas are mostly solitary kaijus but sometimes they do form groups during mating or when hunting very large kaijus.

Thats about it for my Demaaga, yes i skipped Barugon i wanted to draw demaaga cause i love him!