I read in a really good book that I can't remember the name of (but it will come to me sometime) that the crystalline style exists in many types of gastropods and actually rotates in their stomach. I think it is the only example of a truly rotating mechanism in any known life-form which makes it interesting for that reason alone. I believe this rotation is supposed to help grind the food down somehow.  I don't know whether that is a supposition or a fact.
Tom E, you know which book I mean because you recommended it a long time ago on CONCH-L.  It is the British one printed in 1975 or something like that, but I can't even remember the title.

Nora
Calgary, Alberta

Wayne Harland wrote:

> Jeff,
>
> The item you refer to is called the "conch pistol" and is not a portion of the male genitalia of the conch. This particular apparatus (whose purpose I have no idea but Dr. Harry Lee will probably provide us the answer) occurs in both male and female conchs.  It appears to be associated the digestive tract and according to the locals bestows some enormous sexual prowess to the consumer.  That is an old wives tale because I ate 12 of them and only 9 worked.
>
>  Wayne Harland
> [log in to unmask]  http://www.gate.net/~wharland
>
> "The trouble with doing something right the first time
> is the no one realizes how difficult it really was."