18th century illustration showing a study of wood attacked by the common shipworm (Teredo navalis) in the Netherlands. Shipworms are marine bivalve molluscs that can live and bore into submerged timber. In the early 1730s, the shipworms caused enormous damage to Dutch dikes and sank ships. Artwork published in Gottfried Sellius's book 'Historia Naturalis Teredinis seu Xylophagi Marini, Tubulo-Conchoidis speciatim Belgici', 1753.