Building without limbsIn a sentence: To build, many architects will leverage their bodies in unique ways using their tails or mouths, while others will secrete materials to create an architecture. In an image:  Diagram generated with Napkin.AI Why do we care? A few potential reasons.
Longer form thoughts: A few of my aquatic architects have a real problem. They need to build something but don't have legs or arms. This may be less of a problem than my human brain originally thought. Many builders do not benefit from limbs, but it twists my mind a bit. Some use their mouth. Big-mouth fish excavators, such as the Frie's goby (Lesueurigobius friesii), the giant jawfish (Opistognathus rhomaleus), the rockmover wrasse (Novaculichthys taeniourus), the red band-fish (Cepola macrophthalma), the well-digger jawfish (Gnathypops rosenbergi), and the yellowhead jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) can move sediments by leveraging their mouths as shovels. I am not aware of any studies that have assessed the morphological differences between fish that have evolved to dig with their mouths compared to those builders who don't. Still, I suspect that developing an oversized jaw comes at a cost. Perhaps speed, perhaps even beauty (I don't know if fish select for mates based upon visual cues but based upon the striking visual displays many fish have, it isn't a stretch to imagine), or perhaps specialized jaws that limit the diversity of food the builders can consume limiting where they can find calories. Some use their mouths to tear instead of excavate. The bowfin (Amia calva) will use its mouth to pull and clear away vegetation for its depression nests. Some use their powerful tails: When a fish won't use their mouth, they can use the rest of their body. Many depression nests, broad concave bowls excavated into the sediment, are constructed by several species of fish, including the Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), the Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), black crappie ( Pomoxis nigromaculatus), Pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus), and the Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), by using their tail fin to excavate. The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) creates "mud nets" slapping their tail along a sandy bottom to create a wall of mud to encircle their prey. One of my favorite burrowers, the small-mouthed and small-finned garden eels (Heteroconger hassi)stick the end of their mucus-secreting tail into the sand and oscillate their body to create long sinusoidal mucus-reinforced burrows. A few of my builders bypass using any material for the environment at all and secrete their own. Single-celled amoebas ( Difflugia) (not an animal) secrete an adhesive made of their own cytoplasm. This "glue" allows particulates to stick to the amoeba, resulting in a protective case around the builder. Colonies of some bacteria species (e.g., B. stublis) secrete an extracellular matrix to self assemble into a film. These biofilms can be found at fluid interfaces (on the surface of a stagnant pond or on/across the wall of a pipe). They are mechanically strong (highly resistant to fluid shear) The violet snail (Janthina janthina) secretes mucus to create a raft to float upon, drifting on the ocean's surface. The Asiatic bivale clam (Corbicula fluminea) secretes a mucus parachute to hitch a ride on the current. In my mind, I imagine it a bit like if a human coughed up flehm and used that flehm and the power of the wind to move to their next location. Salps (Pegea confoederata) secrete mucus in a net and consume that nets in a constant cycle. (This one turns my stomach a bit. It is a bit like if a human constantly and slowly secreted mucus from their nose directly into their mouth to consume whatever material was caught on their boogers 🤮🤮). Planktonic tunicates (Bathochordaeus mcnutti) make the most stunning and intricate mucus houses. It has two layers. One large outer layer is embedded with food, and there is a geometrically intricate center that they pump their food through, piping food directly into their mouth. (I would love to understand how these architects can make such intricate/complex structures with just mucus and flow. That is a self-assembly problem that seems fascinating. But maybe that it is not self assembly at all. This species is hard to study.) Note: A review of non-human mucus would be a great addition to the literature. The pufferfish is another geometric genius without arms or legs (Torquigener albomaculosus). I don't think you can talk about animal architecture in any capacity without mentioning the geometric nests the males build to attract potential mates. These builders drag their bellies along the sand ocean floor to excavate into the sand to create beautiful and ephemeral patterns. Pufferfish must have some sense of aesthetics, and it is hard to know what a female fish is judging for. Still, based on the quality of the nest, she will decide whether or not to mate with the architect who created it. If you don't mind using your mouth or feet, you can still build. If you can do neither, there is always mucus. References: Jean Claude Quéro. Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic= Catalogue des poissons de l’Atlantique oriental tropical: Clofeta. Sirsi) i9789230026202. Unesco, 1990. Gerald R Allen and DR Robertson. “Quatre especes nouvelles d’Opisthognathidae (Jawfishes) du Pacifique oriental tropical”. In: Revue fr. Aquariol 18.2 (1991), pp. 47–52. S Takayanagi et al. “Sleeping mound construction using coral fragments by the rockmover wrasse”. In: Journal of fish biology 63.5 (2003), pp. 1352–1356. MJohn Thompson. BURROWING AND BURROW-ASSOCIATED BEHAVIOR IN THE DUSKY JAWFISH, OPISTOGNATHUS WHITEHURSTI. Florida Atlantic University, 1974. Patrick L Colin. “Burrowing behavior of the yellowhead jawfish, Opistognathus aurifrons”. In: Copeia (1973), pp. 84–90. Celia KC Churchill et al. “Females floated first in bubble rafting snails”. In: Current Biology 21.19 (2011), R802– R803. OL Green. “Observations on the Culture of the Bowfin”. In: The Progressive Fish-Culturist 28.3 (1966), pp. 179–179. T.C. Hiebert, B.A. Butler, and A.L. Shanks. “Oregon Estuarine Invertebrates: Rudys’ Illustrated Guide to Common Species”. In: Environmental biology of fishes 3 (2016). Eric P van den Berghe and Mart R Gross. “Female size and nest depth in coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)”. In: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 41.1 (1984), pp. 204–206. Yuri Mazei and AlanWarren. “A survey of the testate amoeba genus Difflugia Leclerc, 1815 based on specimens in the E. Penard and CG Ogden collections of the Natural History Museum, London. Part 1: Species with shells that are pointed aborally and/or have aboral protuberances”. In: Protistology 7.3 (2012), pp. 121–171. Luanne Hall-Stoodley, J William Costerton, and Paul Stoodley. “Bacterial biofilms: from the natural environment to infectious diseases”. In: Nature reviews microbiology 2.2 (2004), pp. 95–108. Jens Kjerulf Petersen. “Ascidian suspension feeding”. In: Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 342.1 (2007), pp. 127–137. Keiichi Matsuura. “A new pufferfish of the genus Torquigener that builds “mystery circles” on sandy bottoms in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae)”. In: Ichthyological research 62.2 (2015), pp. 207–212. Images:
Editing: Grammarly
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AuthorJordan is a technologist, an Indigenous futurist, a beaver futurist, an animal enthusiast, a curious scientist, a compulsive engineer, and science storyteller. 
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