Translations:AY Honors/Shells - Advanced/Answer Key/123/en

Penion cuvieranus cuvieranus, showing its siphonal canal to the left.

In some sea snails, (marine gastropod molluscs in the infraorder Neogastropoda), the animal has an anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon, through which water is drawn into the mantle and over the gill. This siphon is a soft fleshy tube which also serves to "smell" or "taste" the water in order to locate a possible source of food.