radula

American  

[raj-oo-luh] / ˈrædʒ ʊ lə /

noun

PLURAL

radulae

1. a chitinous band in the mouth of most mollusks, set with numerous, minute, horny teeth and drawn backward and forward over the floor of the mouth in the process of breaking up food.

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radula British  

/ ˈrædjʊlə /

noun

1. a horny tooth-bearing strip on the tongue of molluscs that is used for rasping food

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Other Word Forms

• radular adjective
• subradular adjective

Etymology

Origin of radula

1745–55; < New Latin rādula, Latin: scraper, equivalent to rād ( ere ) to scrape, rub + -ula -ule

Example Sentences

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the new structure as a radula, a tonguelike structure covered in teeth that snails and other mollusks use to scrape food into their mouths.

From New York Times

The existence of Typhloesus’s toothy radula led the scientists to deduce that the alien goldfish was in fact a mollusk.

From New York Times

“It is a very exciting find to have a radula, because that is definitive,” said Christopher Whalen, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History who studies cephalopods from the Bear Gulch and was not involved in the new study.

From New York Times

“Just like how all vertebrates have a backbone, all mollusks have a radula.”

From New York Times

These gelatinous slugs swim through the water column and stick their radula through a trunklike proboscis to snag prey, a hunting style similar to what the new study proposes for Typhloesus.

From New York Times