Shrimp-like crustacean found to make gooey underwater silk

(PhysOrg.com) -- Fritz Vollrath and colleagues from Oxford University have been analyzing the gooey material produced by tiny amphipods known as Crassicorophium bonellii, a small shrimp-like creature that produces the goo for use as a binding material in building its undersea home. The team has found, as explained in their study published in Naturwissenschaften, that the material is a sort of combination between the cement barnacles use to affix themselves to rocks and ship hulls, and spider silk; an interesting combination that if duplicated in an industrial process could lead to beneficial materials for use in medical implantation products.

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