CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What do snail teeth look like? (Picture of snail teeth 260000)

1. What do the teeth of the giant African snail look like?

Teeth of the Giant African Snail: Lingual Teeth

The tongue teeth are very distinctive. They are not the chewing type like the teeth of mammals, but a bit like a file-like rolling tooth. The tongue is rolled into the mouth in turn, and the food is brought in by the file-like tongue teeth, so they are eating when the snail's head moves!

The shell of the African giant snail is large, usually 7-8 cm long, up to 20 cm, and can weigh up to 32 grams. The shell is narrow and conical, with a length-to-width ratio of about 2:1. The shell is slightly thick, shiny, and long oval. The shell is 130 mm high and 54 mm wide, with 7-9 whorls and a conical spiral. The body whorl is swollen, and its height is about 3/4 of the shell height. The shell is pointed and the suture is deep. The shell surface is yellow or dark yellow with a burnt brown foggy pattern. The embryo shell is generally jade white. The other whorls have broken brown stripes. The growth line is thick and obvious, the shell is lavender or bluish-white, the whorls on the body whorl are not obvious, and the whorls of the middle whorls are staggered with the growth line. The shell mouth is oval, with a simple and complete mouth edge. The outer lip is thin, sharp, and fragile. The inner lip is attached to the body whorl, forming an "S"-shaped blue-white callus, with the axis folded outward and no umbilicus. The feet are well-developed in muscles, the back is dark brown-black, the back is grayish-yellow, and the mucus is colorless.

2. Why does a snail have so many teeth when its mouth is so small?

In fact, snails not only have many teeth, but they are also very sharp. If you put a snail in a cardboard box, you will find a hole in the box in a short time. At this time, the snail will crawl out. Snails use these teeth to eat leaves. They can chew and eat any kind of leaves. When a snail finds food, it will secrete a kind of saliva. This saliva has the acidity of 4% sulfuric acid solution. This saliva first softens the food, and then the snail will use its tongue with teeth to tear the food into pieces and eat it. While the snail has a hard shell to protect it, its saliva and teeth are also its powerful offensive weapons. Snails have the characteristics of self-eating. As soon as the little snail is hatched, it can eat food with its own teeth. The food range of snails is very wide, mainly various vegetables, melon and fruit peels, and some agricultural leaves, stems, buds, flowers, etc. It seems that snails are not good for agriculture. A study shows that the number of snail teeth is quite large. If you look carefully, you will find that there is a small hole in the middle of the snail's tentacles. This small hole is the snail's mouth. The snail's mouth is very small, about the size of a needle tip. Scientists call it "radula". There is a rectangular tongue in the snail's mouth, on which grow countless tiny and neat keratin teeth. These teeth have up to 135 rows, and there are about 105 teeth in each row. In this way, the snail has more than 10,000 teeth. Some people have calculated that the number of snail teeth is 26,500, which is a number that no other creature in the world can match. However, the snail itself has high medicinal value. It is rich in nutrition, delicious, contains more than 20 kinds of amino acids, and is a high-end nutritional product. Snails belong to the gastropod terrestrial molluscs, and there are many species all over the world. According to relevant records, there are about 40,000 species of snails around the world. Snails are distributed in all provinces and regions of my country. They live in forests, orchards, farmlands and other places. However, there are very few snails worth raising in my country. Snails are increasingly being valued as a good food for humans that is high in protein and low in fat.

3. Snails have more than 26,000 teeth. Are they the insects with the most teeth in the insect kingdom?

It is understood that snails are indeed the animals with the most teeth in the world. Although its mouth is about the size of a needle tip, it has 25,600 teeth. There is a small hole a little bit below the middle of the snail's tentacles. This is its mouth, and there is a serrated tongue inside, which scientists call "radula". Snails have a very wide range of foraging, and their staple food is various vegetables, weeds and melon and fruit peels; leaves, stems, buds, flowers, and juicy fruits of crops; all kinds of green grass and green plant feeds, juicy feeds, bran feeds, and cake feeds. Snails feed by mouth. The teeth of snails are very small and almost invisible. If there are few of them, it is inconvenient to eat. In fact, this is the evolution of organisms in the face of nature. In order to survive, they need to adapt to the environment. The teacher introduced some life knowledge of snails, especially that snails have more than 26,000 teeth, and asked us to observe the teeth of snails in a container with a magnifying glass on it. Through a magnifying glass, we saw many thin, sharp teeth like needles in the snail's open mouth. It was incredible. I thought it must be a gourmet, otherwise what would be the point of having so many teeth.