Grape snail teeth. What is the name of the chitinous tongue of a snail
Most are sure that the animal with "teeth", the more dangerous it is. A shark has several thousand (from three to fifteen, depending on the species) razor-sharp teeth in its mouth, located in several rows. That is why sharks are considered to be the most toothy and bloodthirsty, but by no means such a slow and harmless snail, because not everyone knows how many teeth a snail has, photos and drawings of which are found in many children's books.
There is no terrible animal snail
It turns out that the snail is much more "teeth" of the shark. Most of the teeth in her mouth are located as many as 25 thousand teeth, with the help of which she can easily grind even very tough stems and leaves.
It is worth noting that these are not exactly the teeth that we usually mean. IN oral cavity the snail has the so-called radula - a special apparatus that looks more like a grater. Here, rather, it is not how many teeth the snail has, but how they work. Located on the surface of the odontophore (a kind of "tongue"), the radula serves not for biting, but for scraping and grinding food. It consists of a chitinous basal plate (radular membrane) and chitinous teeth, located across in several hundred rows. This entire apparatus operates on the principle of a dredger, which has the same number of buckets as a snail has teeth. It is these horny formations that scrape off nutrientwhich then enters digestive tract... Some types of gastropods use the radula as a drill with which the snail opens the shell of its victim.
Several interesting facts from the life of snails
In conclusion of the story about how many teeth the snail has, it should be noted that it is not the record holder for "toothiness" in the animal world. The undisputed champion is the naked slug. He has about thirty thousand teeth.
Don't you know yet? As it turned out, snails have more than just a spiral house, which they never part with. They also have other "oddities". For example, have you heard how many teeth a snail has? Do you think a stupid question? Let's flip through the tutorials and figure it out. It's interesting!
Some nutritional features
Where did the question of how many teeth a snail have come from, you can understand if you observe the mollusk. Although this will have to risk sleeping time. The fact is that these gastropods prefer to be active in the dark. They crawl out of hiding to feast on fresh herbs or fruits, if they're lucky. There were inquisitive people and followed the gastropods. They found that the snail can chew quite tough leaves. They became interested in this fact. After all, this creature's body is soft. The question arose: how many teeth does a snail have that allow it to burst plants indiscriminately? At that time, people already understood that it was impossible to eat by simply swallowing food. It needs to be crushed. And what organ does the snail do this? They began to investigate this living creature. Amazing things came to light. Only with a simple eye it is impossible to notice it. Special instruments are required.
How are snail teeth arranged?
After conducting anatomical studies, the details of which we will not delve into, the scientists counted the teeth. Of course, this is not exactly what we are used to feeling in our own mouth. In fact, the chewing apparatus of a gastropod is the so-called radula (a term of Latin origin). Translated as "scraper". In some sources, it is presented to the public as a language. The radula is a basal plate from which chitinous teeth protrude. With them, the snail scrapes the surface of a plant or fruit. Similar to how a grater works. Experiment yourself. Take this kitchen tool and scrub hard carrots. Even with a little effort, a small amount of pulp will remain on the cloves. By the same principle, the snail gets its own food. Judging by the complaints of gardeners, whom these gastropods spoil the harvest of cabbage or onions, they do it perfectly. Having found out everything described, the scientists became interested, like you and me, how many teeth a snail has. Meticulous researchers found and calculated. It turns out that there are about twenty-five thousand of them! But further more interesting details were revealed.
About little snails
The fact that gastropods lay their eggs in the ground has long been known. Only it was not clear what the kids eat. An experiment was carried out, and it gave the following result: the hatched babies eat what is nearby. And this is a shell. So they are already born with teeth! Only after assimilating all the food in the "nest", the snails get to the surface. By this time they reach, so to speak, maturity, that is, they behave like adults. So we found out how many teeth a snail has. There is a photo of the radula in the article. Admire this strange and wonderful organ that allows gastropods to cope with hard apples or tough grass.
How many teeth does the Achatina snail have?
You know, a lot of shellfish live in the world. Our snail also belongs to them. Gastropods differ in structure and size. The largest is Achatina. This snail lives well in captivity. So, the number of her teeth is even greater than that of others. On one radula, there are simultaneously up to one hundred thousand sharp protrusions! They age or wear off over time. In place of the dropped ones, new ones grow. So the snail does not have to starve. The entire radula can be symbolically divided into rows. Teeth fall out from those arcs that are in the working area. And in the depths of the oral cavity new ones are born. Scientists have found that the rate of replenishment of teeth in a snail depends on the type of food. Some individuals are able to grow up to five rows of new chitinous peaks per day. The speed is gigantic for a small gastropod (compared to a human).
There are, but conditionally, since they are not located exactly as in most vertebrates. And not really teeth. These are the so-called radula - chitinous bands on which there are thousands of chitinous "teeth". But these "teeth" do not bite through food, but scrape it off.
Predatory carnivorous snails use a special caustic liquid they produce before meals. This allows future food to be softened.
The fact is that the tongue of snails is a grater. It got its name precisely due to the fact that the snail scrapes off pieces of food, fish feces and other edible things with it. The grater tongue is an indispensable tool for grinding a particular food by snails. The same radula (chitinous tape) is located directly on the tongue. Often, a chitinous tape and a grater are combined into one and the same concept - language.
The ribbon radula is found in both carnivorous snails and slugs (naked snails) and herbivores. There is only one difference here: different types of these mollusks, the chitinous tape has its own "dental" pattern.
How many teeth do snails have?
For a long time, science did not know how many teeth are in the mouth of snails. However, time does not stand still: scientists have conducted a number of studies and experiments with mollusks and found out how many teeth are in the mouth of certain snails. It turns out that the American garden snail has 135 rows of tiny teeth on its chitinous band, each of which includes 105 teeth. If you count, their total number will be equal to 14175. This snail is the absolute record holder for the number of teeth!
How do snail teeth work?
Snail teeth are mobile. Due to their certain movements, the mollusk pushes food into its mouth, scraping it off: the food is slowly but surely pushed into the snail's esophagus. The tongue (chitinous tape) of mollusks grinds food quite effectively, but not without losses for the snail itself. The fact is that her small teeth are constantly and in large quantities forced to wear off.
A snail called the oyster drill is carnivorous. Her way of eating cannot be confused with anyone else: she drills the shell of an oyster and greedily scoops her meat out with her tongue.
It should be noted that worn-out teeth are not a problem at all for molluscs. The fact is that their teeth grow constantly and rather quickly. In principle, such regeneration in the oral cavity of the snail resembles the constantly renewing teeth of sharks.
When asked how many teeth a snail has, asked by the author Victoria galuza the best answer is
Average 25,000-30,000 teeth
Answer from Andrey Danilchuk[newbie]
The snail tongue is equipped with a radula - a kind of grater covered with numerous chitinous teeth. The snail uses the radula to scrape off food, which it then swallows. The Chitin Tongue is capable of handling very hard foods. Radula is constantly being renewed, worn "teeth" are replaced with new ones.
13 facts about snails:
1. A solution with a concentration of caffeine in 1-2% kills snails, and with a concentration of 0.01% prevents them from eating. In comparison, a typical cup of coffee contains about 0.05% caffeine.
2. The first cyborg was a snail, whose neurons were fixed on a silicon chip.
3. All nervous system the snail consists of 20 thousand neurons. By comparison, the human brain contains several hundred billion neurons.
4. Snails are beginning to be used as donors of nerve tissue for the treatment of brain diseases. The first successful experiments in transplanting snail nerve nodes into the brains of epileptic rats showed a significant decrease in the number of seizures in them, and in some cases, seizures stopped altogether.
5. Snail horns are a nose turned inside out. All the olfactory receptors that are inside the nose in humans are stretched out into the so-called horns in snails.
6. It is assumed that snails do not see, but only distinguish between light and darkness.
7. The snail has about 25 thousand teeth. They are located not in rows, but in the form of a "grater" with which they grind food.
8. The giant land snail Achatina fulica can reach up to 20 cm in length. Despite its enormous size, the average speed of such a snail is less than that of a common grape snail.
9. Most species of snails are hermaphrodites.
10. Maximum speed grape snail 7 cm / min.
11. In southern and southwestern Europe, snails are eaten. Snail meat contains more proteinthan in a chicken egg.
12. The largest snail found was of the species Syrinx aruanus. She weighed 16 kg. , and her house was 70 cm long. These are water snails, and in water, as you know, weight decreases.
13. In almost all snails, the shell is twisted clockwise, that is, to the right when viewed from the pointed end. Sometimes, quite rarely, left-handed shells are found.
The snail's teeth are located on the tongue, so that, while processing food, the mollusk grinds it, letting it go through rows of tiny chitinous teeth. These formations are called a radula or grater. They got this name precisely because of their unusual structure: not in the usual rows, like in humans and most animals, but with a grater, which is responsible for chopping food and its further movement.
It is thanks to chitincovering every element, snail teeth are considered the strongest in the world. Biologists have carried out research and noticed that in the tiny teeth of some mollusks there are goethite interspersed with iron and tightly packed mineral fibers - and, most likely, they also play an important role in strength.
Before these studies, it was believed that there was nothing stronger than spider silk, but it turned out that the strength of the radula is as much as 5 times more!
For example, sea saucer snails live on sea cliffs and feed on algae, which the surf carries to rough stones. Agree that in order to eat at least something from the surface of the stone, the jaws need very strong - so as not to break.
Sometimes the radula has drill shape, and, thanks to its power, the snail can easily drill through hard covers - for example, the shell of the victim, under which there is a long-awaited prey. Scientists have put forward the theory that this is directly related to the evolutionary properties of individual species - graters take exactly the shape and quantity that are necessary to digest and grind the products of the desired diet.
The number of teeth can go up to several thousand - everything depends on the species. The record holder for the number is the American Garden Snail, which has 135 rows of 105 elements each. In total, if you make simple calculations, 14175.
At the same time, if anything happens with at least one tooth, it is immediately restored - and you don't have to go to a mollusc dentist! Deep in the mouth there is a special tape on which the graters grow and replace the old ones when they are worn out.