The Biomaterials of Arthropods

Summary: Organisms build various types of material for structural support as well as for other functions such as transport, optics, and more. The cuticle of arthropod is one type of such fascinating biological-material. It is built of a simple set of building blocks, mainly chitin and proteins, but through specialized hierarchical structural organization, it shows an astonishing range of physical properties. This flexibility in materials properties of the cuticle has supported a wide diversification of species, making Arthropoda the largest and richest animal kingdom, and it has also attracted research in bio-inspired materials design.