Biogenic Design of the Flexible, Resilient, and Hard Mineral Protector in Door Snails.

ABSTRACT: Organism design incorporates diverse materials with varying properties, such as hard skeletons of biogenic minerals and soft organic skins. However, achieving a balance of flexibility, resilience, and hardness remains a challenge even for organisms. Door snails have a calcareous door (clausilium) that covers the aperture. The clausilium combines hardness for defense and flexibility for opening and closing. Here, this work focuses on the biogenic design of a clausilium stalk as a unique architecture balancing several properties. This study investigates the stalk, a twisted ribbon with high flexibility and resilience, which is identified as a synapomorphic structure in 22 Clausiliidae species across seven subfamilies and 17 tribes. Internal observations reveal a double-layered structure: a h

SUBMITTER: Kurihara Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12697901 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature