[Rockhounds] This 'wandering meatloaf' chiton has a rare mineral in its teeth

[Peter Richards]

The density of the teeth is essentially irrelevant.  Gold has a density of 15 to 19, and mercury a density of 13.6.  Neither would make good rasping teeth.

Pete Richards
___________________________
R. Peter Richards, Ph.D.
rpr at heidelberg.edu
Morphological Crystallographer

> On Jun 13, 2021, at 6:32 PM, Drew <dr00bert at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> "The hardness was not measured but the measured density of the type
> material is 2.42 g/cm3."
> 
> https://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/ejm/detail/15/54934/Santabarbaraite_a_new_amorphous_phosphate_mineral?af=crossref
> 
> On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 9:37 AM THE HAMMER <hammerron at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Santabarbaraite is new to me.  I did several internet searches for more
>> information and one thing that I found odd is that I could find no mention
>> to its hardness.
>> 
>> Ron
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> on behalf of
>> Kreigh Tomaszewski <kreigh at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Monday, May 31, 2021 4:16 PM
>> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <
>> rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
>> Subject: [Rockhounds] This 'wandering meatloaf' chiton has a rare mineral
>> in its teeth
>> 
>> A rare iron mineral has been discovered in the teeth of a living organism
>> for the first time -- one that bears the pet name "wandering meatloaf."
>> While it sounds like a tour update for the musician Meat Loaf, this
>> research concerns a large mollusk called a chiton (not a "bat out of
>> hell"). The mollusk, also known as Cryptochiton stelleri, got its nickname
>> because it's large, reddish-brown and, well, shaped a bit like a meatloaf
>> escaping the pan. It lives along rocky coastlines. The largest chiton in
>> the world, it can reach 13 inches in length.
>> Researchers were surprised to find santabarbaraite in the mollusk's tooth
>> because it's previously been found only in rocks.
>> 
>> 
>> Chiton need tough teeth because they essentially chew on rocks to scrape
>> off algae and other food substances. Their teeth are one of the hardest
>> materials in nature and are attached to a flexible tongue-like structure
>> called a radula.
>> 
>> https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/31/world/rare-mineral-chiton-mollusk-teeth-scn/index.html
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