The clam once suspected of owning a battery

The Ocean World considers mechanical, chemical and galvanic explanations for Pholas boring and wrongly links luminosity to electrical action[[cite:7]]. Modern work models mechanical drilling in the related white piddock Barnea candida using shell rotation and muscle action[[cite:8]].

A soft animal in a hard rock inspired a strange explanation. Follow an old battery hypothesis to the shell that does the work.
How did a soft animal get into rock?
The piddock’s smooth burrow demanded an explanation.
One guess was a battery.
The book considered electricity as part of the explanation.
The shell is a working surface.
Ridges and repeated movement can scrape a burrow into softer rock.
The mystery became a mechanism.
An old guess gives way to a shell we can study.

The clam once suspected of owning a battery

Explore related topics