A section of limestone riddled with burrows bored by a unique rock-eating shipworm. (Credit: Shipway et al 2019, Proc. R. Soc. B 20190434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0434)

What would a shipworm do if a shipworm didn’t eat wood? The humble bivalve has long had outsized influence on both its environment and even the global economy. That’s because, until now, every known species consumes wood, sometimes with destructive results.

A shipworm species new to science, however, tunnels th