Data from: The influence of cactus spine surface structure on puncture performance and anchoring ability is tuned for ecology

Spines are common morphological features found in almost all major
biological groups offering an opportunity to explore large-scale
evolutionary convergence across disparate clades. As an example, opuntioid
cacti have spines with barbed ornamentation that is remarkably similar in
form and scale to that found on porcupine quills, suggesting specific
biomechanical convergence across the animal and plant kingdoms. While the
mechanics of porcupine quills as defensive mechanisms has been previously
tested, the mechanics of cacti spines (which have evolved to fill a number
of functions including defense, climbing and dispersal) has not been
characterized. Here we study the puncturing and anchoring ability of six
species of cactus, including both barbed and non-barbed spines. We found
that barbed spines require less work to puncture a variety of targets than
non-barbed spines. Barbed spines also require more work than non-barbed
spines to withdraw from biological materials, due to their barbs engaging
with tissue fibers. These results closely match those found previously for
barbed vs. non-barbed porcupine quills, implying biomechanical
convergence. The variation in performance of barbed versus non-barbed
spines, as well as between barbed spines from different species, is likely
tied to the diversity of ecological functions of cactus spines.