Figure 4.

Schematic representation of the suggested mechanisms of textural evolution during prism biomineralization. A) High growth rate by amorphous particle attachment as observed in P. nobilis. The large influx of amorphous particles is accommodated by the rough surface of the growing prism. B) Low growth rate by amorphous particle attachment as observed in P. nigra. The ACC particles first arrive at the surface and then diffuse until integration. C,D) Cross‐sectional and longitudinal view of prism recrystallization process induced by dislocations formed during the amorphous‐to‐crystalline phase transformation in P. nigra, respectively. Initially, they form dislocation structures that rotate the prisms. When rotation is no longer possible the stored elastic energy is released by recrystallization. Each prism rotates following an activation of a specific slip‐system that depends on the initial orientation of the prism. Dislocations are marked in green. E) Longitudinal view on textural evolution of the entire prismatic assembly in P. nigra. Gray arrows indicate the [0001] direction of the lattice.