Another risk in dealing with radulae is the possibility of ontogenetic change. Feeding habits may change as a mollusk grows up; corresponsingly, the radula may change. Strict reliance on any one character is likely to get you into trouble in classification, as shown by most of the higher-level classifications of the bivales, for example. Radula characters aren't helpful for them, either (nor in any of the snails that have lost the radula).
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
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That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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