生命反复进化出由硬质小板与柔软接缝组成的几何铺砌结构：从镜蛛腹部可快速重排的微型反光板，到龟甲与热带果皮的板块-关节布局。研究者在 PNAS Nexus 报告了一个全球目录，汇集了跨越动物、植物、微生物与病毒的 100 个实例，显示这种“硬-软”组合在生命树上高度一致地出现。
团队将研究对象限定为“真实镶嵌”：几何瓦片是离散的结构单元，并由更软的缝隙分隔，而非仅具视觉效果或空腔结构（如体色图案或蜂巢）。共同作者 Mason Dean 在鳐鱼骨骼的微型 CT 中识别出由微小六边形与五边形紧密拼接的马赛克；Jana Ciecierska-Holmes 又在黍类种子外层发现互锁板片。随后他们建立统一框架，比较材料、形状、连接方式与功能，揭示了在无共同祖先的情况下仍出现的结构平行：石鳖的多片壳板、鲨与鳐的镶嵌软骨、变形虫以矿物瓦片构筑的保护壳、昆虫复眼透镜的铺砌，以及象脚树的栓皮板纹。
这些重复模式被解释为几何与生长共同施加的约束：以鲨与鳐为代表的“以六边形为主”的图样能高效覆盖曲面；瓦片边界也常与生长中新增细胞的区域对齐，使组织在扩张时仍能工作。硬瓦片与软接缝的配对在刚度与柔韧之间提供可预测的权衡：过度刚硬更利于抗力，却不利于产生运动。作者希望在线目录成为可持续更新的资源，帮助研究者在不同生物结构中识别同一类几何-力学方案。
Life repeatedly evolves geometric tessellations made of hard tiles separated by softer seams: from the mirror spider’s rapidly reconfigurable reflective plates to plate-and-joint layouts in turtle shells and tropical fruit peels. In PNAS Nexus, researchers report a global catalog of 100 examples spanning animals, plants, microbes, and viruses, showing a remarkably consistent hard–soft design across the tree of life.
The team restricted the survey to “true tessellations,” where geometric tiles are discrete structural pieces divided by compliant seams, not merely visual motifs or hollow lattices (such as coloration patterns or honeycombs). Co-author Mason Dean recognized a mosaic of tiny hexagons and pentagons packed edge to edge in micro-CT scans of a ray skeleton; co-author Jana Ciecierska-Holmes found interlocking plates on millet seed coatings. They then built a common framework to compare material, shape, connectivity, and function, revealing structural parallels without shared ancestry: chiton shell plates, shark-and-ray tessellated cartilage, amoebae casings built from scavenged mineral tiles, tiled insect eye lenses, and corky plate patterns in the elephant’s foot plant.
The recurrence is attributed to constraints from geometry and growth: predominantly six-sided layouts, as in sharks and rays, efficiently cover curved surfaces; tile borders often align with regions where new cells are added, allowing tissues to keep functioning as they expand. Pairing hard tiles with soft seams yields a predictable tradeoff between stiffness and flexibility: overly rigid structures resist forces well but generate motion poorly. The authors aim for the online catalog to function as a living resource for recognizing the same geometric–mechanical solution across diverse biological structures.