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"Shipworms are such important animals," says Reuben Shipway, co-corresponding author of the research published recently in International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation and who initiated this work as part of his postdoctoral fellowship at UMass Amherst.

“The problem with canvas paintings is that in one little area it’s possible to have 10 different materials—organic and inorganic together,” says Fatima Morales Marín of the University of Murcia in Spain, who co-authored a 2017 study on biodeterioration in canvas paintings.