Schulz, J. R. A. G. Norton, and W. F. Gilly. 2004. The projectile tooth of a fish-hunting cone snail: Conus catus injects venom into fish prey using a high-speed ballistic mechanism. Biol. Bull. 207:77-79

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.