Fig. 2: The skeletons and spicules of Ea. and Ta. sponges. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: The skeletons and spicules of Ea. and Ta. sponges.

From: Lamellar architectures in stiff biomaterials may not always be templates for enhancing toughness in composites

Fig. 2

a The skeleton of the Ea. sponge (modified from16 copyright, the National Academy of Sciences). b The anchor spicules that fasten the sponge to the seafloor (modified from16 copyright, the National Academy of Sciences). c The broken end of an Ea. anchor spicule that was fractured in three-point bending showing its layered architecture (modified from32 copyright 2017, Elsevier). d A Ta. sponge (image courtesy of Steve Lonhart/NOAA MBNMS). e A toothpick-like spicule found within the Ta. sponge (reproduced from26 under the Creative Commons 4.0 BY license). f The exposed surface of a Ta. spicule that was fractured in the same way as the Ea. spicule shown in c showing that it does not contain a layered architecture (modified from32 copyright 2017, Elsevier). Scale bars: a ≈2 cm; b 2 mm; c 25 μm; d ≈1 cm; e 125 μm; f 10 μm.

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