A tiny underwater creature spins silk in order to bind together its sand grain house, researchers have discovered.
The shrimp, Crassicorophium bonellii, produces fibres that combine barnacle cement biology with spider silk production techniques.
The resulting "gossamer threads" are sticky and salt-water resistant.
The Oxford team says this is a new example of "nature's way of engineering a highly functional material".
Their discovery is published in the journal Naturwissenschaften.
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15699346
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