The karyotic mineralization window (KMW)

Abstract

Biomineralization is frequently a transient and intermittent activity characterised as a phase change in a small fluid-filled space bounded by sensitive cells. It is therefore a difficult phenomenon to identify and to experiment upon. The possibility has therefore been pursued of obtaining a "Mineralization Window" onto this process by following the activities of mixtures of trace amounts of inorganic ions. The results of a number of such experiments are considered in relation to the three different types of calcifying systems originally identified by Wilbur. The method of metal ion pairs is also of value in probing the relationships between amorphous deposits and the various crystalline minerals that may be formed from them. © 1984 by the 1984 American Society of Zoologists.