DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2025.1232 ISSN: 1742-5662

The crystalline style of molluscs: the nonlinear dynamics of a macroscale rotating structure in biology

Sergio Testón-Martínez, Louise Lavictoire, Antonio G. Checa, C. Ignacio Sainz-Díaz, Julyan H. E. Cartwright

Abstract

We investigate the biophysics of crystalline style rotation in molluscs. We show that its efficient functioning as a type of food processor and mixer suggests a mechanism determined by the nonlinear physics of the variation in the rotation rate of the style. The crystalline style of molluscs is perhaps the only example above the cellular level of continuous rotation of a body part in animals.

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