Moon snails, like other predatory snails, use their tongue-like radula (rasping mouthpart) to drill holes in the shells of their prey. They also secrete chemicals that soften the shell, making it ...

Moon snails, like other predatory snails, use their tongue-like radula (rasping mouthpart) to drill holes in the shells of their prey. They also secrete chemicals that soften the shell, making it ...

Some snails, like periwinkles, use the radula to scrape algae off rocks, much as cows graze upon grass. The predatory snails use the radula to drill holes in their prey.

When the moon snail attacks, the foot enfolds the prey and, if it can’t suffocate the creature, the radula begins to work its way through the shell, adding a kind of acidic saliva every few ...

With its radula, a rasp of seven rows of teeth, the moon snail countersinks its unmistakable signature: a perfect round hole, right at the clam’s hinge, to pop open its meal.

Moon snails release an acid onto the shells of clams and other snails to soften the shell, then drill a borehole into the shell with its radula (kind of like a toothed tongue) and feed off the ...

How Many Teeth Do Snails Have? The radula houses the snail’s ‘teeth’. Snails usually have between 10 and 15,000 teeth, though some may have up to 25,000.

Fully grown, the Lewis’ moon snail can grow up to 5.5 inches. The Washington State Department of Ecology calls it a “voracious predator,” whose favorite dinner is clams.

One of those predators, and one of the top predators in the Puget Sound’s seagrass bed ecosystems, is the moon snail. They are gigantic mollusks larger than the size of the average fist.

The size, number, and arrangement of the radula also vary considerably and often used as diagnostic tool for distinguishing species. In some gastropods the radula is used in a rasping or conveyor belt ...