Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A structure in most mollusks over which the radula is drawn back and forth during feeding.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The whole radular apparatus, buccal mass, lingual ribbon, or “tongue” of certain mollusks.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A special structure found in the mouth of most mollusks, except bivalves. It consists of several muscles and a cartilage which supports a chitinous radula, or lingual ribbon, armed with teeth. Also applied to the radula alone. See
radula .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
projection in themouths of mostmolluscs ; it is used, with theradula to break up food
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
odonto- + -phore
Support
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Examples
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And while he speaks of the teeth and that which serves these animals for a tongue, it is plain from the context that he means in the one case the two halves of the parrot-like beak, and in the other the anterior end of the odontophore.
Fathers of Biology Charles McRae
reesetee commented on the word odontophore
A movable ribbon-like cartilaginous projection in the mouth of a mollusk on which the rasping organ or radula is supported.
February 16, 2008