Ancient fossils reveal how the mollusc got its teeth

Posted August 22nd, 2012 by PCC STEM & filed under Biology, News.

The radula sounds like something from a horror movie -- a conveyor belt lined with hundreds of rows of interlocking teeth. In fact, radulas are found in the mouths of most molluscs, from the giant squid to the garden snail. Now, a "prototype" radula found in 500-million-year-old fossils shows that the earliest radula was not a flesh-rasping terror, but a tool for humbly scooping food from the muddy sea floor.

Comments are closed.