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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for August 2, 1999
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What ocean creature eats wood?
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For centuries, ocean-going vessels were subject to sinking when the
wood they were made of collapsed due to the honeycombed tunnels of
the teredo, or ship worm. The teredo is a bivalve (two-shelled)
mollusc that eats waterlogged wood.
Each teredo larva enters the wood through a tiny hole. It uses its
two small shells to bore out a tunnel, and consumes the wood. As it
goes, it secretes a layer of shelly material to coat the inside of
the tunnel. As an adult, it can grow to one meter long (three feet).
Teredoes have been boring into driftwood for millions of years,
almost the age of the forests that provide the wood they eat. Today,
wooden ships are protected from teredoes by special coatings.
More about teredoes:
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/shipworm.html
Technical article about teredoes:
http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/GSC/newsletr/APR295.html
Teredoes are xylophagous, which is today's Cool Word:
http://www.cool-word.com/archive/1999/08/02.html
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