Question

What are the crucial difference between ordinary minerals and bio-minerals?

Answer 1

Answer:

Biominerals are biogenic mineral phases that include single crystals, composites, and amorphous materials (Lowenstam and Weiner, 1989). About 60 biominerals have been identified based on their inorganic constituents (Lowenstam, 1981). These include minerals of carbonates, phosphates, halides, sulfates, silica, iron oxides, manganese oxides, sulfides, citrates, and oxalates scattered across the branches of life, i.e., eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea (Lowenstam and Weiner, 1989; Schüler and Frankel, 1999; Inskeep et al., 2004). Early descriptions of biomineral architectures utilized geometric principles to explain the beautiful patterns and underlying growth mechanisms in Nature (Figure