ArticleScience advances2026
Trade-offs in mechanical performance influence the diversity of fangs, stingers, and spines.
Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Puncturing structures such as fangs, stingers, and spines have evolved convergently across all biological realms. Although superficially similar in form, the diversity of these features calls into question whether simple geometric laws can fully describe their evolution. We examine biological puncture tools through the lens of engineering to evaluate how mechanical principles influence their diversity in nature. Plotting biological puncture tools from more than 140 organisms onto mechanically informed performance landscapes shows that tool diversity is heavily influenced by trade-offs between buckling resistance and puncture efficiency. Where an organism falls on this trade-off is partly related to biological function but shows little relation to the replaceability of the tool. Our results highlight multiple avenues for the evolutionary adaptation of biological puncture systems to constraints imposed by physical laws.
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