Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Cone Snail

Conus sp.

Description:

"Conus snails are all venomous. Live ones should be handled with care or not handled at all, because they are all capable of stinging humans with unpleasant results. The species that are most dangerous to humans are the larger ones that prey on small bottom-dwelling fish. The other species hunt and eat marine worms or mollusks. Cone snails use a hypodermic-like modified radula tooth and a poison gland to attack and paralyze their prey before engulfing it. The tooth is sometimes likened to a dart or a harpoon. It is barbed and can be extended some distance out from the mouth of the snail, at the end of the proboscis." Source : - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conus

Notes:

Found my first spotting of a live cone snail. Not exactly sure of correct scientific name. Would appreciate any help. Spotted during a night dive at the sandy portion of the Classroom at Dive and Trek. Depth of about 6m.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Sand-Dusted Cone
Conus arenatus


Sign in to suggest organism ID

9 Comments

Eric Noora
Eric Noora 11 years ago

Thanks BruceLivett. Will look into it. Cheers :-)

BruceLivett
BruceLivett 11 years ago

Hi Eric. Check out Conus pulicarious. Could be a match.

Eric Noora
Eric Noora 12 years ago

Thanks Nopayahnah and anjupvraghese. Yup they are quite venomous and should not be handled at all to be on the safe side.

anjupvarghese21
anjupvarghese21 12 years ago

super photo...........nice to see but surprised to hear it is dangerous!!

Maria dB
Maria dB 12 years ago

Would never have imagined this is poisonous; PNoah is always teaching me something - thanks!

Eric Noora
Eric Noora 12 years ago

No problem Gerardo. Thanks :-)

Gerardo Aizpuru
Gerardo Aizpuru 12 years ago

Sorry i lost in this one there are so many different is very hard to ID Erick.

Eric Noora
Eric Noora 12 years ago

Thanks Gerardo. Yup. Had to keep my distance. The weathered shell makes it difficult to ID properly. Any ideas?

Gerardo Aizpuru
Gerardo Aizpuru 12 years ago

Grate Photos Erick
Dangerous snail.

Eric Noora
Spotted by
Eric Noora

Batangas, Philippines

Spotted on Jan 21, 2012
Submitted on Feb 12, 2012

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Conus mediterraneus Hebrew Cone Cone snails Beech Cone

Nearby Spottings

Geometric Chromodoris Common Marble Shrimp False-Eye Puffer, Papua Toby Common Decorator Crab

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team