About Radula tracks
The radula is the toothed, rasping tongue that is an organ only found in molluscs. In gastropod molluscs like snails, slugs and limpets the radula is used to rasp away plant food material. When these animals are rasping a monolayer of algae on a hard surface they leave behind tracks in the monolayer that constitute a record of the precise pattern of the feeding activity.
Look out for these fascinating tracks on surfaces of stones, rocks, wood, metal and plastic that have a green layer of algae on them that the molluscs find tasty.
Some predatory molluscs use their radula plus specialised, sometimes acidic, secretions to bore holes in the protective shells of their prey to get at the soft tissues inside. We are interested in images of those holes that the radulae produce
This group provides a database for any radula tracks wherever you find them. If you drop images into our Photostream please give us a location and any information you have about the snail, slug or limpet that produced the tracks
We obviously also have an interest in images of radulae, the structures that make the tracks, and we invite representative images of those as well, including scanning electron micrographs
Happy tracking!
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Additional Information
 This is a public group.
- Accepted media types:
- Accepted content types:
- Photos / Videos
- Screenshots / Screencasts
- Illustration/Art / Animation/CGI
- Accepted safety levels:
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