Mollusks, and their particularly diverse class Gastropoda, owe much of their ecological success due to the evolution of their radula—a specialized feeding apparatus. This structure, composed of a chitinous membrane and sometimes mineralized teeth, plays a critical role in food acquisition and processing across a wide range of habitats. The radula’s morphology, material composition, and mechanical properties exhibit remarkable diversity and functional optimization, shaped by millions of years of evolutionary refinement. Adaptive variations in tooth shape, composite material content (often rich in iron, calcium, silicon, or other elements), mechanical properties, and coordinated interaction among radular components enable mollusks to withstand strong contact forces, minimize structural failure and tooth wear, and thrive in distinct ecological niches. This review synthesizes current insights into the structure and mechanical properties of the radula teeth, highlighting its adaptations to the preferred ingesta and the functional principles of the teeth. In the course of adaptation to similar physical constraints of the ingesta, different solutions evolved independently. Besides main aspects interesting for ecological research and organismic biology, the radula’s structural intelligence and efficiency present a rich source of inspiration for biomimetic innovation.
Krings et al. (2026) studied this question.