Tiger cowry

Description:

Cypraea tigris, commonly known as the tiger cowry, is a species of cowry, a large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. Mantle tan with white and black. Mottling and fine lines. Numerous long unbranched filaments with white tips. Shell white with highly variable patterns of black spots with reddish outlines. Carnivorous, the adult tiger cowrie eats coral and various invertebrates, while juveniles eat algae.

Habitat:

The tiger cowrie is found on the ocean floor in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, across the waters of Micronesia and Polynesia, the Coral Sea and around the Philippines. Along the Australian Coast it is found from Northern New South Wales to northern Western Australia, as well as Lord Howe Island, and along the east coast of Africa including Madagascar. Found between depths of 10 and 40 metres (35–130 ft), it is often associated with live coral colonies, such as the table-forming Acropora, either found on the reefs themselves or the sandy sea bottom nearby.[ Once common, it is now much less abundant due to shell collecting and the destruction of its habitat by such processes as dynamite fishing, especially in shallower areas.

Notes:

This is the type of shells my mother had when I was a child as ornament in the house. I always wondered where they came from, since they are not found in the Mediterranean Seas. Now I know :-)