Nature's Strongest Material Found In A Sea Snail's 'Bite'.

A scanning electron microscope image of limpet teeth

The winner in the strong man competition of the natural materials world might surprise you. The teeth of the aquatic snail-like limpet may have snatched the title for strongest known natural material.

“Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics but now we have discovered that limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher,” said Professor Asa Barber in a release from the University of Portsmouth, which conducted a study published this week in the Royal Society journal Interface.

Limpets carry conical, almost hat-like shells, and use their tiny teeth that contain a hard mineral known as goethite to scrape their way along the surface of shoreline rocks and remove algae that they eat when the tide is in. 

“We discovered that the fibres of goethite are just the right size to make up a resilient composite structure,” Barber said.
He says those structures could be mimicked to create stronger materials for things like Formula One racecars or the hulls of boats and planes. What makes the structure of goethite particularly compelling is that it it doesn’t grow weaker in bigger structures.

“Generally a big structure has lots of flaws and can break more easily than a smaller structure, which has fewer flaws and is stronger. The problem is that most structures have to be fairly big so they’re weaker than we would like. Limpet teeth break this rule as their strength is the same no matter what the size.”