Description: Conus litteratus Linnaeus, 1758 - lettered 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 lettered cone snail shown above is part of the Indo-West Pacific Province: "The world's largest and richest province extends from the Red Sea and East Africa across the Indian Ocean, then touches northern Australia and southern Japan to extend eastward throughout the "South Seas" to Hawaii and Easter Island. Probably 5,000 marine species are found in its shallow coral waters." [info. from museum signage} Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neogastropoda, Conoidea, Conidae More info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus_litteratus. Date: 3 January 2016, 16:21. Source:
Conus litteratus (lettered cone snail) 1. Author:
James St. John.
