Description: Homalocantha oxyacantha (Broderip, 1833) - sharp-spined murex snail from Ecuador. (abapertural view) (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. From museum signage: "This species is one of the many members of the Family Muricidae found along the coast of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. This record-size specimen measures 75.4 mm and was collected on rocks at low tide in La Playa, Ecuador." Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neogastropoda, Muricidae Locality: marine shoreline at La Playa, southwestern Ecuador. Date: 4 January 2016, 12:28. Source:
Homalocantha oxyacantha (sharp-spined murex snail) (La Playa, Ecuador). Author:
James St. John.
