Crossword clues for radula
radula
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Radula \Rad"u*la\ (r[a^]d"[-u]*l[.a]), n.; pl. Radul[ae] (r[a^]d"[-u]*l[=e]). [L., a scraper, fr. radere to scrape.] (Zo["o]l.) The chitinous ribbon bearing the teeth of mollusks; -- called also lingual ribbon, and tongue. See Odontophore.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
surgical instrument, 1753, from Latin radula "scraper, scraping iron," from radere "to scrape" (see raze). Related: Radular.
Wiktionary
n. (context zoology English) The rasping tongue of snails and all other mollusks except bivalves.
Wikipedia
The radula (plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure that is used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters the esophagus. The radula is unique to the molluscs, and is found in every class of mollusc except the bivalves.
Within the gastropods, the radula is used in feeding by both herbivorous and carnivorous snails and slugs. The arrangement of teeth (also known as denticles) on the radula ribbon varies considerably from one group to another.
In most of the more ancient lineages of gastropods, the radula is used to graze, by scraping diatoms and other microscopic algae off rock surfaces and other substrates.
Predatory marine snails such as the Naticidae use the radula plus an acidic secretion to bore through the shell of other molluscs. Other predatory marine snails, such as the Conidae, use a specialized radula tooth as a poisoned harpoon. Predatory pulmonate land slugs, such as the ghost slug, use elongated razor-sharp teeth on the radula to seize and devour earthworms. Predatory cephalopods, such as squid, use the radula for cutting prey.
The introduction of the term "radula" is usually attributed to Alexander von Middendorff in 1848.
Radula is a genus of liverwort, and is the only genus in family Radulaceae.
Species include:
- Radula complanata
- Radula demissa M.A.M.Renner, 2013
- Radula jonesii Bouman, Dirkse & Yamada
- Radula kojana
- Radula laxiramea
- Radula marginata
- Radula perrottetii
- Radula visiniaca C. Massal.
Usage examples of "radula".
People came back who had become gnawed by the radula of impossibly fast vermiform predators.
I did my Biology at University College,--getting out the ovary of the earthworm and the radula of the snail, and all that.
Ahead of him somewhere, a thousand rasping ultra-diamond teeth, patterned on the radulae of a snail, had been chewing through the metal core of the rock, sucking the debris into the sorter and then into the storage bay for refining on the main ship.