File:Conus princeps (prince cone snail) 1 (24356954591).jpg

Conus princeps Linnaeus, 1758 - prince cone snail shell (abapertural view), modern (latest Holocene). (public display, Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA)

The gastropods (snails & slugs) are a group of molluscs that occupy marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Most gastropods have a calcareous external shell (the snails). Some lack a shell completely, or have reduced internal shells (the slugs & sea slugs & pteropods). Most members of the Gastropoda are marine. Most marine snails are herbivores (algae grazers) or predators/carnivores.

The conid gastropods (cone shells) are fascinating marine snails for a couple reasons - they have attractively-shaped, colorful shells and they are killers. The conids are predatory, as are many other marine snails, but they take down their prey in an unusual fashion. The radula of most snails is a mineralized or heavily sclerotized mass of small teeth that scrapes across a substrate during feeding. Conid snails have a toxoglossate radula - one that has been evolutionarily modified into tiny, unattached, toxin-bearing, harpoon-like darts (see photo - science.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/files/images/niederhofer_2...) that can be fired at prey. Each dart is an individual tooth. The nickname "killer snails" is well deserved (even people have been killed). Some species have incredibly powerful toxins, while in other species the toxin has little effect on humans.

The prince cone snail shown above is part of the Panamic Province: "Much richer in species than its Caribbean counterpart, the tropical-water Panamic area extends from the Gulf of California, along the Pacific coast of Central America to Ecuador. Known for its wide tidal ranges, its sandy-mud shores and offshore waters abound in colorful murexes, cones, olives and cowries. Over 2,500 species are known from here, including the endemic tent olive." [info. from museum signage}

Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neogastropoda, Conoidea, Conidae

More info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus and