Radular tooth

Figure 2. The harpoon-like tooth of Conus, a. An unusual photograph of a radular tooth at the tip of the proboscis of Conus pur-purascens. Normally, the tooth would not be ejected from the proboscis until the prey had been harpooned. Photograph by Alex Ker-stitch. b. A scanning electron micrograph of the tip of the radular tooth of Conus purpurascens, showing its harpoon-like form.

Cone snails are found in tropical waters, often in the neighborhood of coral reefs. These molluscs produce a complex venom delivered through a specialized radular tooth that serves as a harpoon to immobilize their prey (Olivera et al., 1990 1991). Complete immobilisation of the prey takes only a few seconds (Terlau et al., 1996). The venom from a single cone snail can contain up to 200 different biologically-active components (review Shen et al., 2000). The primary structure of the naturally-occurring co-conopeptides derived from several species of Conus are... 

Figure 13 Chiton teeth. A sketch of the radular organ in the chiton mouth and a micrograph showing the shape and rows of magnetite teeth. Each tooth is less than 20 p,m in length (source Nesson and Lowenstam, 1985, figure 1, p. 336).

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