Shipworms are cellulose-eating bivalves famous for boring into wood, leading to their nickname "the clams that sunk a thousand ships". TIL they also loved to eat early trans-oceanic cables, which were often wrapped in hemp, tree rubber or other plant-based materials. The problem was only solved when a protective metal tape was developed! #clamFactshttps://atlantic-cable.com/Article/Clifford/teredo.htm
@llewelly shipworms have been around since at least the Cretaceous and potentially the Jurassic. and other invertebrate groups have likely been eating driftwood since it first appeared! it's a rich nutrient source that is surprisingly important to marine food webs https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.12376
@llewelly it is thought that before wood boring evolved, logs would have had a much longer life floating in the sea, and evidence of all sorts of rafting organisms have been found from that interval. The shipworms make quick work of such logs these days! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/566844v2.full.pdf