#radula

Do snails have teeth? - Yes they do, they have several teeth on their tongue which is called a radula. They have between 1,000 and 25,000 little cheese grading teeth.

Rasping tongue, or radula, of an Astraea conehead snail, Astraea tecta. Stained with Congo red. Imaged using a 10X (0.45 NA) objective. Depth color-coded projection.

By Igor Siwanowiczfrom (USA)

Pulling Teeth

Battered by waves, limpets hang on for dear life – using rows of teeth for a tight suction to the underside of boats and rocks. The teeth of the common limpet (Patella vulgata) are made from the strongest known substance in the world – a composite material of chitin and goethite – which scientists might put to new uses. In this animation based on X-ray computed tomography, teeth producing cells called radula are highlighted in a weaving white line – later rainbow colours highlight different levels of mineralization as teeth develop. Researchers aiming to recreate these impressive gnashers, pull the cells and tissues into a lab dish, guiding the growth of this strong material with chemicals. The limpet’s teeth could one day inspire a building material for implants, or in tiny scaffolds, helping human cells to heal against the turbulent currents inside the body.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Robin M. H. Rumney and colleagues

School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, St Michael’s Building, White Swan Road, Portsmouth, UK

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, July 2022