Why waste space? In the first stage of the multiphase biomineralization of collagen, silicic acid precursors (purple) infiltrated the collagen fibril (yellow) and condensed into amorphous silica to give a hierarchical composite. Amorphous calcium phosphate precursors (red) then filled the intrafibrillar spaces of the silicified collagen, where the precipitation and maturation of apatite crystallites (blue) occurred to complete the process.
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Niu et al. (2013) studied this question.
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