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Date: | Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:33:29 -0400 |
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At 03:20 PM 4/5/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>That's a pretty big snail, and I have to wonder how large its radula was.
>>Here's a question for the gastropodologists: Is there any relationship
>>between the size of a snail's shell and the size of its radula?
>
>How's this for an ambiguous answer....yes, to some degree, but not always.
>Some minute land snails (and marine, I'm sure) have proportionately (the
>operative word) large radulae and some large snails have proportionately
>small radulae, take the cones for instance. It depends more on just what
>the critters are doing with it.
>
>Kurt [Auffenberg]
>
>Interesting. Does a snail's radula grow throughout a snail's life?
YES. OLD, WORN TEETH AT 'ORAL' END DISCARDED. NEW ONES GENERATED IN REAR.
>Within a genus, are the radulae of large species larger than the radulae
of small species?
I'M NOT SURE, BUT AGAIN, IT DEPENDS MORE ON WHAT THE SPECIES IS DOING WITH
IT. HOWEVER, SAY ALL HELICOSTYLIDS FEED ON MICROFUNGI OF BASICALLY THE
SAME SIZE AND CONSISTANCY, WHICH GROW ON TREE BARK OF THE SAME DEGREE OF
SMOOTHNESS (NONE OF WHICH IS TRUE).....I WOULD ASSUME THAT THE LARGER
SPECIES WOULD HAVE LARGER RADULAE. WOULD I PUT THAT IN PRINT? NO WAY!
WOULD AN EXCEPTION TO THIS 'RULE' BE FOUND? ABSOLUTELY!
KURT
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