Has the שמיר worm been found?

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  • #1745982
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    From Fox News

    Rocks might not sound like a delectable meal to most life-forms, but it’s on the menu for a newly identified species of a plump, bizarre-looking clam.

    However, though this clam consumes limestone, its discoverers aren’t sure if the creature snags any actual food from those rocks. For instance, do the bacteria in the clam’s gut help to break down the rock and release nutrients?

    “We want to look at the symbionts, the bacteria that live inside these animals, to see if they are providing any nutrition, and this is an area of research we are currently focusing on,” said study lead researcher Reuben Shipway, a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine Science Center at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. [In Photos: Spooky Deep-Sea Creatures]

    The newfound clam is a type of shipworm, the name for a group of clams so called because they devour wood, especially from ships. Wood is hard to eat, but adaptations help these clams burrow into the material; those adaptations include “small rows of small, sharp teeth on the shell and a special organ for wood storage and digestion, called the caecum,” Shipway told Live Science.

    Every known shipworm eats wood, so Shipway and his colleagues were surprised when Philippine locals in Bohol province told them in 2018 about a freshwater shipworm that ate rocks. Locally, it’s known as “antingaw,” and young mothers eat it because they think it will help them lactate, he said. (The newfound species was noted in a recent expedition led by French biologist Philippe Bouchet at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, but it was the locals who helped the new team locate the mysterious shipworm, the researchers said.)

    Unlike other shipworms, the newly named Lithoredo abatanica (which roughly means “rock shipworm from the Abatan River”) has lost all its wood-boring adaptations, including the caecum, Shipway said. Rather, this clam’s “shell has these really large, shovel-like projections for digging into rock,” he said.

    The creature’s shell crunches the rock, which the animal then eats, digests and expels as a fine sand. “There are a small number of animals that do ingest rock — for example, birds use gizzard stones to aid digestion,” Shipway said. “But Lithoredo abatanica is the only known animal that eats rock through burrowing.”

    He described the rock-eating clams as “pretty bizarre — they are plump, translucent, worm-like clams.” Most of the specimens the researchers collected were 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, but a few individuals were much larger.

    “When I was diving in the river, I saw burrows that were over 2 feet [60 cm] in length!” Shipway said. “So, there may be some absolute monsters living deep in the rock.”

    By eating rock, L. abatanica is literally changing the course of the river, Shipway added. “These burrows also provide habitat for countless other species living in the river, including crabs and fish,” he said. “This is a very rare, yet very important process in freshwater environments.”

    The study was published online today (June 19) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

    I know it’s a clam but they call it a shipWORM

    #1746191
    Alizgitt
    Participant

    I don’t know but there a video showing the discovery of a stone eating worm from the Philippines that was making the rounds on Whats App yesterday.

    #1746284
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    Alizgatt

    That’s what this article is talking about

    #1746324
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Look at the mishna Sotah 9:12 that the use of the Shamir stopped after the destruction of the temple, the second beis hamikdash. See the Melaches Shliome there. It was created erev shabbos ben hashmoshas used to cut precious stones in the beis hamikdash. It was called Shamir to protect ir from cutting things accidentally.

    #1746326
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Everything created erev shabbos ben hashmoshas was for future need, so they disappear when they are not needed anymore.

    #1746336
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    When these things are not needed, they are hidden and then they reappear like the rainbow. The tzadikim prktect the world from destruction and the rainbow is not required. See the Klei Yokor in Parshas Noach.

    #1746346
    mentsch1
    Participant

    Tcanter
    I’m assuming you have sources to back up your statement
    Bc the Shamir is mentioned numerous times in Gemara and even pirkei avos
    Not once did I see any source that said don’t take it literally .
    In fact in pirkei avos it’s listed as one of the things created “bein hashoshos” along a list that includes the mun, luchos, and even the Torah
    Considering the illustrious list we find listed in ,excuse me for not taking your answer seriously without supporting sources

    As for this creature being the Shamir , the Shamir is supposed to be very small and faded out of existence

    #1746625
    tcanter
    Blocked

    We don’t post kefira, and we try not to post anything else written by those who try to post kefira. So if you see your posts start disappearing you’ll know why.

    #1747259
    Pinchas
    Participant

    coffee addict – fascinating! Thanks for the post. I looked into it to see what this looks like and it definitely looks a lot more like a worm than a clam. Though I thought the gemara writes the Shamir was the size of a barley and these are much larger -so that’s problematic. However they do eat through stone so I don’t see why they couldn’t be used for the bies hamikdash or for the future bies hamikdash. (Though it doesn’t seem like you can control how they cut – they just go as deep into the center of the stone and live there.) It’s also interesting that they are only found in a 3-5km area of an obscure river in the Philippines. Very well hidden.

    #1747310
    motchah11
    Participant

    The Shamir will make its reappearance when Moshiach comes, right? And the gemara is Maseches Shabbos says that everything Chazal promised will happen when moshiach comes (trees growing suits, women giving birth every day) has its counterpart here and now (sikk growing in tree bark, chickens laying eggs daily, etc.). So perhaps this is a semblance of the Shamir. May it come back soon!

    #1749157
    DrYidd
    Participant

    unless moshiach is hiding out in the philli[pines and planning to build the beit ha’mikdash there, i do not think so.

    #1749108
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    “1) The Shamir is described as a unique supernatural organism created bein hashmashot of the Friday of creation, and kept hidden, not an ordinary natural species of worm that eats rock instead of wood.“

    Why would Hashem need to create both of this worm could do it?

    #1749152
    klugeryid
    Participant

    The shamir did NOT EAT rock.
    It split the rock like a ripe fruit splits WITHOUT LOSING ANY OF THE ROCK matter!!!

    Obviously this is not the Shamir

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