The earliest known mineralized structures in vertebrates are associated with feeding.
<h3>What is mineralized structures?</h3>
Tissues that have incorporated minerals into soft matrices are referred to as mineralized tissues. These tissues typically serve as a structural support or a shield of protection.
Mineralized tissues include bone, mollusk shells, radiolarians, diatoms, Euplectella species of deep sea sponges, tendon, cartilage, tooth enamel, and dentin.
Over millions of years of evolution, these tissues have been precisely tailored to improve their mechanical properties. As a result, there have been numerous studies on mineralized tissues because there is much that can be learned from nature, as seen by the expanding field of biomimetics.
These tissues are prime candidates for artificial tissue duplication due to their extraordinary structural organization and technical qualities. Mineralized tissues encourage multifunctionality, flexibility, and downsizing.
