A Marine Mollusk Grinds Down Rock

It May Lead to Better Engineering Machinery

Algae do not merely grow on rocks, they also grow in the cracks and crevices of rocks making the seaweed organisms a difficult meal for consumers such as Cryptochiton stelleri, otherwise known as gumboot chiton, a marine mollusk off the coast of California. This tenacious chiton solves the problem by grinding down rocks with an amazing set of teeth which contain the hardest known biomineral, magnetite. The outer shell of the chiton’s teeth, as professor David Kisailus explains in his latest paper, develop in four distinct stages:

(i) the formation of a crystalline α-chitin organic matrix that forms the structural framework of the non-mineralized teeth, (ii) the templated synthesis of ferrihydrite crystal aggregates along these organic fibers, (iii) subsequent solid state phase transformation from ferrihydrite to magnetite, and (iv) progressive magnetite crystal growth to form continuous parallel rods within the mature teeth.

What is remarkable is that the formation of this advanced,  super-hard material, occurs at standard temperature and pressure. This inspires Kisailus to use these same strategies to produce cost-effective, advanced nanomaterials.

That’s a great idea. An even better one would be to steal the chiton’s designs for using its teeth to grind down rock. As one report explains:

Over time, chitons have evolved to eat algae growing on and within rocks using a specialized rasping organ called a radula, a conveyer belt-like structure in the mouth that contains 70 to 80 parallel rows of teeth. During the feeding process, the first few rows of the teeth are used to grind rock to get to the algae. They become worn, but new teeth are continuously produced and enter the “wear zone” at the same rate as teeth are shed.

The report explains that all this evolved. In other words, random mutations just happened to construct the elaborate process of forming the chiton’s teeth and the complex structures, mechanisms and processes for using the teeth to grind down the rock, to obtain a modest meal of seaweed.

Every mutation, at every point along the way, must have been random. They could not have been induced by the need of the moment. Those are the rules. Otherwise teleology and final causes would be back in play, and that is not allowed in evolutionary theory.

You see evolutionary theory is not driven by empirical science. It is driven by metaphysics. In fact evolutionists have no idea how the amazing gumboot chiton evolved. But they are certain that it did evolve, because they are certain that everything evolved.

Religion drives science, and it matters.