379 Biominerals are the inorganic phases of minerals found in biological systems, which are distributed from microorganisms to the highest animals and plants (Mann et al. 1989, Simkiss and Wilbur 1989, Weiner and Lowenstam 1989, Mann 2001). Although minerals composed of calcium predominate, biominerals of barium, strontium, iron, and silica are also well known. Biominerals generally occur as ox...

Understanding biomineralization processes provides a route to the formation of novel biomimetic materials with potential applications in fields from medicine to materials engineering. The teeth of chitons (marine molluscs) represent an excellent example of a composite biomineralized structure, comprising variable layers of iron oxide, iron oxyhydroxide and apatite. Previous studies of fully min...

Abstract The superfamily Buccinoidea is distributed across the oceans of world from Arctic Ocean to Antarctic and intertidal abyssal depths. It encompasses 3351 recent species in 337 genera. latest taxonomic account recognized eight full families. For first time, monophyly relationships among families are tested with molecular data supplemented by anatomical radula data. Five genetic markers we...