Ancient fossils reveal how the mollusc got its teeth
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 18:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
This is a reconstruction of the Odontogriphus mouthparts. 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 studied by University of Toronto graduate student Martin Smith, shows that the earliest radula was not a flesh-rasping terror, but a tool for humbly scooping food from the muddy sea floor.