Unusually for invertebrates, linguliform brachiopods employ calcium phosphate mineral in hard tissue formation, in common with the evolutionarily distant vertebrates. Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (SSNMR) and X-ray powder diffraction, we compare the organic constitution, crystallinity and organic matrix–mineral interface of phosphatic brachiopod shells with those of vertebrate bone. In particular, the organic–mineral interfaces crucial for the stability and properties of biomineral were probed with SSNMR rotational echo double resonance (REDOR).
Lingula anatina
and
Discinisca tenuis
shell materials yield strikingly dissimilar SSNMR spectra, arguing for quite different organic constitutions. However, their fluoroapatite-like mineral is highly crystalline, unlike the poorly ordered hydroxyapatite of bone. Neither shell material shows
13
C{
31
P} REDOR effects, excluding strong physico-chemical interactions between mineral and organic matrix, unlike bone in which glycosaminoglycans and proteins are composited with mineral at sub-nanometre length scales. Differences between organic matrix of shell material from
L. anatina
and
D. tenuis
, and bone reflect evolutionary pressures from contrasting habitats and structural purposes. The absence of organic–mineral intermolecular associations in brachiopod shell argues that biomineralization follows different mechanistic pathways to bone; their details hold clues to the molecular structural evolution of phosphatic biominerals, and may provide insights into novel composite design.
Heteronuclear double resonance in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: Relaxation of multiple-quantum coherences