Labral tooth loss in the carnivorous gastropod Acanthina monodon: Recovery capacity and incidence in the feeding process

Abstract

The temporary loss of an animal feeding structure can often be replaced by a new one. During that replacement period, however, the animal can be limited in its ability to feed. The muricid gastropod Acanthina monodon can sometimes lose its labral tooth naturally; recovering the tooth will typically take between 14 and 21 days. Our studies show that the volume, length and area of the recovered tooth are equal to or greater than the characteristics of the original tooth. However, the recovered teeth were seen to grow differently and have different shapes than those of the original teeth. Moreover, less force was required to break the newly formed teeth, to an extent based on the shape of the new tooth. Although the toothless snails continued to feed in our study, the absence of the labral tooth had a negative impact on the size of attacked prey, although not on the number of prey attacked. Thus, the ingestion rate was lower in specimens with recovered teeth than in snails with the original intact teeth. Snails that lost the labral tooth also displayed alterations in the feeding process, including lower energy income and potential energetic repercussions, at least during the recovery period of the lost structure.