West Indies
- Catalog Number:
- 35353
- Specimen Count:
- 1
- Precise Locality:
- Locality:
- Atlantic Ocean Region
- Collecting Locality:
- North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea
- Cabinet:
- 09
- Drawer/Shelf:
- 06
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Animalia, Mollusca, Polyplacophora, Neoloricata, Chitonida, Chitonina, Chitonidae, Chitoninae
Most mollusks have a "radula", a ribbon made of chitin with rows of teeth (denticles). The radula is always used to feed, but how it is used varies widely. Radulas are specialized to the diets of mollusks, which range from fully carnivorous to entirely herbivorous. The radula may be used to filter, scrape, crush, cut, or stab, depending what food is eaten. Predatory murexes use the radula to drill holes into other mollusks, whereas limpets use it to scrape algae off rocks. The shape of the radula and denticles can be used to figure out what mollusk it came from. Nudibranchs that feed on corals have long, skinny denticles for scraping the thin layer of flesh off the coral skeleton. Queen conchs have a comb-like radula with thousands of tiny denticles for filtering small food from the water. Regardless, as denticles wear away, they are continuously replaced from top to bottom.