Cacti spines snake fangs snail love darts – oh my!  How function drives the evolution of nature’s puncture tools

Jumping cholla cacti spines are a prime example of how evolution creates specialized puncture tools. Tony Cyphert/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA – By Philip Anderson, Associate Professor of Biology and Biomechanics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Published: 2026 Jul 08 – Most people probably aren’t thinking about …