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The radula (US: / ˈ r æ dʒ ʊ l ə /; pl.: radulae or radulas) [1] is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. [2] It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters the esophagus .
The buccal mass is the first part of the digestive system, and consists of the mouth and pharynx. The mouth includes a radula, and in most cases, also a pair of jaws. The pharynx can be very large, especially in carnivorous species. Many carnivorous species have developed a proboscis, containing the oral cavity, radula, and part of the ...
Diverticulum – A pouch or hole, as the pouch containing the radula, or that containing the dart in helices. [1] Dormant – In a state of torpor or sleep. [1] Dorsal – The back. In gastropods the opposite to the aperture. [1] Ectocone – The outer cusp on the teeth of the radula. [1] Edentulous – Without teeth or folds, as the aperture ...
The radula of a gastropod is usually adapted to the food that a species eats. The simplest gastropods are the limpets and abalone, herbivores that use their hard radula to rasp at seaweeds on rocks. Many marine gastropods are burrowers, and have a siphon that extends out from the mantle edge.
The radula is used to scrape microscopic algae off the substratum. The mouth cavity itself is lined with chitin and is associated with a pair of salivary glands. Two sacs open from the back of the mouth, one containing the radula, and the other containing a protrusible sensory subradular organ that is pressed against the substratum to taste for ...
Muscles that control the radula are shown in brown. The surface of the radula ribbon, with numerous teeth, is shown as a zig-zag line. The odontophore is part of the feeding mechanism in molluscs. It is the cartilage which underlies and supports the radula, a ribbon of teeth. [1] The radula is found in every class of molluscs except for the ...
The cephalopod radula consists of multiple symmetrical rows of up to nine teeth [101] – thirteen in fossil classes. [102] The organ is reduced or even vestigial in certain octopus species and is absent in Spirula. [102] The teeth may be homodont (i.e. similar in form across a row), heterodont (otherwise), or ctenodont (comb-like). [102]
Tympanotonus radula (Linnaeus, 1758) (junior synonym; misspelled genus) Tympanotonos fuscatus , the West African mud creeper , is a species of snail living in brackish water , a gastropod mollusk in the family Potamididae .