The Projectile Tooth of a Fish-Hunting Cone Snail: Conus catus Injects Venom Into Fish Prey Using a High-Speed Ballistic Mechanism
Biol Bull Schulz et al.
207: 77
Video Supplement
The sequence of stills in this video illustrates the mechanism of prey-capture by a fish-hunting cone snail (Conus catus). The action is taking place in a chamber 1.2 mm high. The cone snail's proboscis approaches from the left, and the fish is positioned at the right side of the chamber. The times before (-ms) and after (+ms) the release of the snail's harpoon-shaped radular tooth are indicated in the upper left corner of the video frame. In the final few milliseconds before the radular tooth is released (-7 to -3 ms), the base of the tooth is propelled up against a constriction within the proboscis. The first frame after the release of the tooth occurs at 0 ms. The movie ends (at +200 ms) with the cone snail's proboscis holding the base of the radular tooth, which is impaling the fish. The video was constructed of stills from a high-speed video clip (1000 frames/s); the clip is available from the corresponding author.
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