File:Conus tinianus (ruddy cone snail) 3 (24059005799).jpg

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Conus tinianus Hwass in Bruguiere, 1792 - ruddy cone snail shell (apertural 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 - <a href="http://science.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/files/images/niederhofer_2ab_6b_radula.jpg" rel="nofollow">science.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/files/images/niederhofer_2...</a>) 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 ruddy cone snail shown above is part of the South African Province: "The huge waves and cool waters of South Africa have produced a molluscan fauna dominated along its rocky shores by large limpets and abalones. Its beaches are often strewn with colorful, offshore cones, trochids and volutes. At certain seasons the cast-off egg-cradles of three species of paper nautiluses are found abundant on some beaches." [info. from museum signage]

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


More info. at: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus</a> and

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus_tinianus" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus_tinianus</a>
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Source Conus tinianus (ruddy cone snail) 3
Author James St. John

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/24059005799 (archive). It was reviewed on 22 October 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

22 October 2019

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current03:40, 22 October 2019Thumbnail for version as of 03:40, 22 October 2019799 × 1,426 (771 KB)Rudolphous (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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