(July 14, 2015) New
research is revealing details about how the exoskeleton of a certain type of
deep-sea shrimp allows the animal to survive scalding hot waters in
hydrothermal vents thousands of feet under water.
“A biological species surviving in that kind of extreme
environment is a big deal,” said Vikas Tomar, an associate professor in Purdue
University's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “And shrimp are a great
test case for evolution because you can find different species all over the
world living at various depths and with a range of adaptation requirements.”
Tomar and doctoral students Tao Qu, Devendra Verma, Yang
Zhang and Chandra Prakash compared the exoskeletons of the deep-sea shrimp
Rimicaris exoculata and the shallow-dwelling shrimp Pandalus platyceros. The
deep-sea species lives 2,000 meters below the ocean surface in volcanic
hydrothermal vents where temperatures can exceed 400 degrees Celsius, whereas
the other species lives just below the ocean surface.
“We want to understand how evolution affects material
behavior in the exoskeletons of these two shrimp species that thrive in far
different conditions,” Tomar said.
Insights into the complex molecular behavior of the
materials could have implications for the design of new synthetic armor capable
of withstanding environmental extremes.
New findings were detailed in a research paper published
online July 2 and will appear in a future print issue of the journal Acta
Biomaterialia. Two other recent papers by the same researchers focused on
laboratory experiments into the shrimp exoskeletons.