Even though silicon is widely found as silicates very few living organisms have a need for it. Some form of ocean sponges have a silica structure in their skeletons and some plants like rice require silicon for growth.
The remaining water in the geyser eventually cools back below boiling point and the eruption stops. Heated groundwater then begins seeping back into the sub ground reservoir, and the whole cycle begins again.
When descriptions, drawings and even live specimens of platypus were first taken back to Europe for study by British scientists many believed the animal was a hoax, a beaver's body sewn together with a duck's bill as some sort of joke.
The opposite of melanism is albinism which is an even rarer mutation that can occur in most animal species. The extremely rare "white panther" are albino leopards, jaguars or cougars.
