Marble Cone Snail

It shoots out a toxic harpoon and reels in its prey a passing fish whenever it locates the same.

Marble cone snail.

Cone snails use a radula tooth as a harpoon like structure for predation. It s the marbled cone snail. This reputation is all caused by a deadly chemical these little snails can emit. Cone snails mainly hunt worms and other snails.

While some animal s venom may be deadlier none cane do so much damage with so little. These snails certainly are lovely but they re as deadly as they are beautiful. This means that it defines the genus for the purpose of determining whether or not other species belong to that same genus. The marbled cone snail was the first cone snail described by the father of binomial nomenclature carolus linnaeus and is the type species for the genus conus or cone snails.

It feeds on other snails including some within its own species. In order to get its prey the cone snail injects a rapid acting venom from a dart like tooth radicula or dagger. The unique marbled cone snail is found from the southern tip of india to okinawa japan and southeast to new caledonia and samoa. Cone snail shells range in size from less than an inch to 9 inches long.

Marbled cone snail is included in the list of top 10 most dangerous animals in the world. A few varieties of cone snails eat fish and these are the most harmful to humans. Are cone snails dangerous. The size of the marbled cone snail is six inches in length and 7 47 grams in weight.

Even a drop of marbled cone snail s venom is so powerful that it can kill more than 20 people. The venom is so dangerous that it can cause intense pain tingling numbness and swelling. Conus marmoreus common name the marbled cone is a species of predatory sea snail a marine gastropod mollusk in the family conidae the cone snails cone shells or cones it is the type species for the genus conus this is a species which is believed to feed mostly on marine molluscs including other cone snails. This is about a detailed video about marbled cone snail.

The snail traps its prey in a very unique way. When it attacks its prey it sticks out its long white proboscis to shoot a poison laden harpoon sometimes attacking its prey multiple times over. Each of these harpoons is a modified tooth primarily made of chitin and formed inside the mouth of the snail in a structure known as the toxoglossan radula. This snail is venomous like all cone snails.

The radula in most gastropods has rows of many small teeth and is used for grasping at food and scraping it into the mouth. Interestingly enough this venom is the same neurotoxin that is produced by the deadly blue ringed octopus which generally causes loss of coordination intense pain and typically a very unpleasant experience.