#geographic cone snail

[jadafitch]

Dangerous Stuff, now available on fabric and wallpaper, in three different color combos. Design features some of the most deadly plants and animals on the planet.

Spoonflower Shop

geographic cone snail, poison fire coral fungi, golden dart frog, voodoo lily, castor bean plant, deathstalker scorpion, deadly nightshade, Brazilian wandering spider, lily of the valley, oleander, redback spider, banded krait, autumn skullcap, diamondback rattlesnake, death cap, angel’s trumpets, stonefish, poison hemlock, box jelly, blue-ringed octopus.

[catboybiologist]

Trick or treat! No candy corn please

Okay! Don't worry, we don't have any here, enjoy your completely harmless treat!

*a rattling rain is heard as 250 live Geographic cone snails rain into your bag*

[practically-an-x-man]

Assign mollusks to your OCs?

Very interesting.... thanks for the ask!

Rae: Blanket octopus - that shimmery train reminds me of her shields

Robin: Lottia edmitchelli (a type of limpet) - it just looks cool, and the red fits her

Madison: Grimaldi Scaled Squid - right color palette, since lionfish aren't mollusks

Ophelia: Argonaut octopus - I mean, it's literally her hero persona

Jasper: Leaf slug - just look at it!

Kestrel: Cuttlefish - they change color and texture, and that's about as close to shapeshifting as you can get in this world

Katherine: Moon snail - they're pretty, and the moon theme suits her

Quinn: Queen Conch - it just suits her

Eris: Blue glaucus (blue sea dragon) or geographic cone snail - small and cool-looking but fucking deadly

Nikoletta: Bigfin Squid - because these things give me the heebiest fucking jeebies and I had to give it to someone, why not the person who spent a lot of her life trying to scare others from the dark?

[sansxfuckyou]

Camera Film (blurry and faded)

Summary: The last one alive, the only survivor of the wretched killing game- but, he wishes he was dead with the rest of them.

Warnings: major character death, body horror, mourning, machine gore (sort of???), check tags for further warnings.

Authors Note: @sobredunia THIRD KENIKARI FIC, FEATURING, UNFILTERED DETAH ANGST BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE ROLL! *clears throat* I've been thinking about how much fucking guilt and trauma the survivor is gonna be left with, this is like, really short though compared to how much I usually write. Anyways, this fic is brought to you by waking up and Dunia showing me some quality Detah art and then I sort of, wrote this, and its completely unrelated to the art at that. If you read it please consider leaving a reblog as they really help with my motivation!

"No!"

His voice was raw as he screamed, desperately reaching for Lares hand but missing. She fell back first into the vat of acid, her clothing sizzled just as fast as her skin melted. He couldn't bring himself to look away as her form distorted, her cries came out garbled and broken, syllables slurred into each other. Only when she was entirely melted did he look away, slumping backwards onto solid ground.

"Congratulations!" The Mastermind cheered, a green screen lowering down from the roof. A tangle of wires and mechanical tentacles helped lower down her disembodied screen. The smugness she wore and the confetti on her screen meant nothing to Detah who couldn't bring himself to look up from the ground.

Detah choked back sobs.

"You're the last one alive, you should be cheering! You should be happy!" The Mastermind exclaimed, the screen lowered to pivot itself to be at Detahs side.

"I'm the last one," He barely managed to get it out, he shrunk against the red fabric a little bit more. Razor sharp teeth ground together as he stifled back tears threatening to spill.

The sound of metal doors opening rung out, moonlight filtered in, "And there's your way out; but don't worry!" She laughed maliciously as she spoke, "I'll make sure to get their graveyards location to you for later!"

Detah stood up, brushed himself off, and punched a hole directly through the green screen. He pulled back his hand and shook off the small shards of glass clinging to his skin, a couple punctures were made. Then he did it again, cords came out this time and what remained of the picture was crackling and blacking out.

"Fuck you," He spat the words with enough venom to counter the Geographic Cone Snail, if The Mastermind could still hear him he hoped she was cowering in his boots. He tossed the handful of torn and frayed copper wires into the vat of acid, "Just, fuck you, I would tell ya to suck my dick but you're too scummy for that honor."

He would've kept disemboweling the machine but the bitterness in his throat and the shake that threatened to render him motionless came out on top. He did tear the screen from it's mechanical tentacles and stomp it, spiked boots tearing through glass and machinery like a hot knife through butter. He gave it a reluctant shove into the acid, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

How is he supposed to live?

He was friends with them, and then he watched them die- he helped them die.

And now he just, has to go on?

Yeah, he'll manage, he'll live with or without them, he still has a sister to take care of at home. He can get a job, he could be a crime detective, he knows what bodies look like under all sorts of death scenarios. He would be great at it! He'll just do that until his sister can sustain herself on her own and then he'll figure something else out.

That doesn't stop his steps from staggering as he steps ever closer to the door. It doesn't stop his mind from going blurry as he edges ever closer to those metal slabs. It doesn't stop the tears from finally spilling over as he breaches the the gate, basked in moonlight and a chilling breeze.

He can't do this.

He turns to step back but the entrance is gone.

He's stuck out here now.

Detah took a heavy breath as he stared at the tombstones all laid out in front of him, he clutched the bouquet in hand a little bit tighter.

He laid one of each at every grave, he never found out their favorite flowers so he went on instinct. But his gut feeling about them has faded over time, it's been so long since he was given a chance to properly mourn and look over what they were like. It's been so long since he's last seen them, years at this point, it hasn't treated him well.

He places a sprig of blueberries on Blues tombstone, he can't quite recall much more than her name.

He drops a mangled strand of lavender on Murasakis, he remembers that he was an asshole.

He puts a white lily on Chuyos tombstone, white petals, a chilly feeling, he always wore snow gear.

He puts a small bundle of wildflowers on Makos, chaotic like what he remembers of her.

He places a blossom of a chestnut tree on Alexs, he knows that the Brit was regal.

He places bee bomb on Bees, she was too quiet for him to garner what else about her asides from names.

He places hyacynths on Uzomis, they stand out from the rest just like she did.

Lastly, he places a jar of moths on Lares, it isn't a flower, but he owes all of his moth knowledge to her.

He takes a seat by her tombstone and gives a heavy sigh, "I miss you guys."

He pops the cap off the jar of moths and urges them to crawl from their confines, they latch onto the rock making up the tombstone. A couple fly off, a purplish hue casts across the sky and reflects to the ground below.

"I could've saved you, one of you! But I didn't," He gives another deep breath and slow exhale, "I'm sorry."

He doesn't know why it still stings when he's greeted with silence despite the fact he knows he'll never hear them again.

[negative-speedforce]

🍫🎵🙃🦖🌸

🍫 Cheese or chocolate?

Cheese! When it comes to chocolate, I only really like white chocolate, or milk chocolate with stuff in it (like caramel peanut butter or matcha)

🎵 Last song you listened to?

Beautiful Mayhem

🙃 What’s a weird fact that you know?

The geographer cone snail is so venomous that if it stings you, you'll be dead in 1-5 hours. There is no antivenom.

🦖 Favorite extinct animal?

The Tasmanian tiger!

🌸 Best compliment you ever received?

I love when people compliment my voice.

[hsladies]

everyone lives/no one dies au

when everyone arrives on earth c, feferi immediately heads for the ocean and spends her time learning about the marine life. she swims with whales and dolphins, watches eels and sharks, lears about the life cycles of crabs and jellyfish and rays. she’s in love with the fauna and flora of earth’s oceans

except then she finds out about cone snails and how ridiculously deadly they are, and is too afraid to set foot in the water for a month afterwards because why does anything need to be that venomous. why.

[smallsith]

i’m pretty sure everyone who’s ever read animorphs has picked out what animals they’d morph for things like battle, flying, indoor stealth, outdoor stealth, you know. but i think the animals people pick say a lot about them.

btw this is absolutely an invitation for people to tell me what morphs they’d pick for what and why they’d go for those specific morphs

[shadowdunsparce]

30 Character Designs Day 13: Toxic Cone snails, namely the Conus geographus, are among the most venomous animals on Earth. Some sources claim they’re the most venomous.

[f107aquaticinvertebrates]

Predatory Snail (Conus)

*hehe will post our next blogpost on the account*

Group 3

I. Classification

Kingdom               Animalia Subkingdom         Bilateria Infrakingdom        Protosomia Superphylum       Lophozoa Phylum                Mollusca Class                   Gastropoda Subclass              Prosobranchia Order                   Neogastropoda Family                  Conidae Genus                  Conus

ITIS (n.d.)

II. Biology

Tropical Dwellers

Approximately, there are 700 Conus species. The majority is found throughout tropical and subtropical waters, such as the South China Sea, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean. Few species were found in South Africa, Southern Australia, Southern Japan, and Mediterranean Sea (Dutertre and Lewis, 2011). There are also existing species thriving in temperate waters such as C. californicus which are found in the North American Pacific coast(Gao et al. 2017).

Figure 1. Worldwide distribution of cone snails. Spot colors stand for various species number (Gao et al. 2017). Image retrieved from:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5744117/#B37-toxins-09-00397

Habitat

Cone snails are commonly found in intertidal and shallow sublittoral zones. They are present in coral reef areas, sand bottoms, and silty crevices. Some were reportedly found in mangrove areas, and in deeper waters of up to 400-600 meters (Carpenter and Niem, 1998; Dutertre and Lewis, 2011). 

Anatomy

Cone snails are gastropods. Gastropods have asymmetrical body symmetry and their shells are spirally coiled. Conus shells are cone-shaped. The spire of the shell is conical and moderately low to flat. It has a well-developed body whorl that tapers towards the narrow anterior end. The aperture is very long and narrow. There is a notch at the aperture’s posterior end, and a short, wide siphonal canal is located at the anterior end. The operculum is corneous, small, and ovate to claw-shaped. However, the operculum may not always be present (Carpenter and Angelis, 2016).

Figure 2. Ventral view of Conus shell with labelled parts.

Image retrieved from:http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5712e.pdf 

The soft body of gastropods has 4 main regions: the head, the foot, the visceral mass, and the mantle. The head protrudes from the anterior end. The foot is a muscular ventral organ with a flattened base used for locomotion (creeping or burrowing). The visceral mass is located in the spire of the shell and contains most organ systems. The mantle is a collar-like tegument which lines and secretes the shell and forms a mantle cavity normally provided with respiratory gills in aquatic species (Carpenter and Angelis, 2016).

Figure 3. Internal anatomy of Conus striatus.

Image retrieved from:https://www.marinelifephotography.com/marine/mollusks/gastropods/cones/cones.htm 

Cone snails have a specialized venom apparatus that comprises a venom gland, salivary glands, a radular sac, a pharynx, a proboscis, and a radula. The radula of the cone snail is hollowed and barbed and it resembles a harpoon. These harpoons are produced and stored in the radular sac, which is divided into two arms and connects to the pharynx. The short arm contains a few fully formed radula while the long arm is where the radulas are produced.

The cone snail uses chemosensory to detect prey. Once the prey is detected, it will extend its proboscis and shoot its radula which will inject a potent venom to paralyze its prey (Kohn et al. 1972; Marsh 1977; Salisbury et al. 2010; Schulz et al. 2004).

Images retrieved from:https://kristinabarclay.wordpress.com/2016/07/

Figure 4. Close-up photo of a cone snail’s radula (top). Cone snail radula under an electron microscope (bottom). 

Life Cycle

Most cone snail species have separate sexes and fertilization happens internally. Cone snails lay their eggs once a year. The egg masses of cone snails are usually made up of up to 25 egg capsules with each capsule containing roughly around 1000 eggs (Zehra & Perveen 1991). Two types of cone snail hatchlings have been described, the veliger stage (free-swimming larvae) and veliconcha stage (juvenile snails). During these stages, only a few will survive. In between 1 and 50 days, the snails will undergo the pelagic stage (Perron, 1983).

According to Rockel et al as cited in Dutertre and Lewis (2011), it is estimated that cone snails have a lifespan of 10-20 years. This estimated lifespan is based on the marks and shell growth of the snail. They can reach a maximum size of > 20 cm, but most species are < 8 cm  and weight < 100 g. 

Figure 5. Conus magus with egg sacs

Image retrieved from:https://poppe-images.com/?t=17&photoid=951805

Figure 6. Conus ammiralis with its egg capsules attached to Halimeda sp. algae.

Images retrieved from:http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/shell/cone/Conus-ammiralis.htm

III. Relationship with Humans

Cone snails are exploited for ornamental trade and research. 

Conus shells have economic value and are marketed as ornaments. One of the rarest and most valuable shells in the world is the Conus gloriamaris or the Glory of the Seas Cone (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020). 

Conantokins or sleeper peptides from the geographic cone snail are short chain peptides that can affect neural receptors in fish and mammals. This peptide has great potential that humans can benefit from when it comes to paint ecpetop, drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms and learning. Con-G one of the conatokins from the geographic cone snail has been found to act as a neuroprotective agent in brain ischemia from strokes. Conus shells contain conotoxin which is used for drug development. For example, the ω-MVIIA (ziconotide) is a well-known conotoxin approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2004) to treat chronic pain in cancer and AIDS patients. It is derived from the toxin/venom produced by Conus Magus (Gao et al. 2017). Conus regius is rich in alpha-conotoxins, which can target nicotine receptors and can help in research concerning the development of medicine for Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, lung cancer and even tobacco addiction. (Kompella et al. 2015)

Death by conus?

Humans can be negatively affected by conus. It is recorded that 30 humans have died from a conus sting. Once stung, the victim feels numbness accompanied by dizziness, slurred speech and respiratory paralysis and then death.

IV. Did you know?

1. The venom from one cone snail has a hypothesized potential of killing up to 700 people. (Kapil S., et al.)

2. The Geographic Cone Snail (Conus geographus), according to BBC Earth, is the most toxic cone snail in the world. Its venom contains a protein which when isolated scientists can be used as effectively as a morphine substitute without the harmful side effects. 

3. A person was recorded to be killed from a cone snail sting in as short as 5 minutes!

4. Some cone snails are solitary in nature, like the  Conus spurius or the Alphabet cone, and the only time individuals have contact with each other is during mating!

5. The largest Alphabet cone shell was recorded at 80 mm or as large as your regular sized mountain dew can!

6. Conus species were observed to exhibit “fishermen-like” behavior when hunting for food! They use their proboscis as lures and catch their prey, scientists even coined the term hook and line method to describe this hunting behavior, just like the fishing method.

7. The cone snail is the only recorded species in the animal kingdom to use insulin as a chemical weapon, a hormone that is also used to help diabetic people! Even though this is used as a means to catch prey, scientists actually used insulin from the cone snail’s venom and combined it with human insulin creating a new type of insulin called mini-Ins. 

IV. References

Chivian, E., et. al. (2003, November). The Threat to Cone Snails. Retrieved October 3, 2020 from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/9046809_The_Threat_to_Cone_Snails_1

Gao B, Peng C, Yang J, Yi Y, Zhang J & Shi Q. 2017. Cone Snails: A Big Store of Conotoxins for Novel Drug Discovery. 2017; 9(12): 397. DOI: 10.3390/toxins9120397

Geography Cone. (2018, September 21). Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/g/geography-cone/

Hall, M. (n.d.). Conus geographus (geography cone snail). Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Conus_geographus/

Kane, S. (2017, December 4). The most venomous animal on Earth is truly surprising. Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/most-venemous-animal-cone-snail-2016-2?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Kohn, A.J. (2016). Human injuries and fatalities due to venomous marine snails of the family Conidae. DOI: 10.5414/CP202630 

Kompella SN, Hung A, Clark RJ, Mari F, Adams DJ. 2015. Alanine Scan of α-Conotoxin RegIIA Reveals a Selective α3β4 Nicotine Acetylcholine Receptore Antagoist. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2015; 290(2): 1039 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M114.605592 

Kohn, A.J. (2016). Human injuries and fatalities due to venomous marine snails of the family Conidae. DOI: 10.5414/CP202630 

Safavi-Hemami, J., et. al. (2014). Specialized insulin is used for chemical warfare by fish-hunting cone snails. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 10.1073/pnas.1423857112 (2015).

Sygo, M. (1999). "Conus spurius" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved October 03, 2020 from https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Conus_spurius/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2020. Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/animal/cone-shell

Xiong, X., Menting, J.G., Disotuar, M.M. et al.(2020). A structurally minimized yet fully active insulin based on cone-snail venom insulin principles. Nat Struct Mol Biol 27, 615–624 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-020-0430-8

[supereffectivemoonblast]

The Geographers Cone Snail, also known as the Geography Cone Shell, is a sea snail that lives in tropical reefs in the Indo-Pacific. All Cone Shells have a venomous barb they use as bait to lure in curious fish. They then stab this barb into their prey, paralyzing them so they can engulf them and eat them.

The Geography Cone's venom is the most potent of all Cone Snails, with venom powerful enough to outright kill their fish prey, and has even taken the lives of dozens of humans.

[weird-bio-facts]

Natures fuckn weird

There are so many organisms in nature that just sound like a shitpost. upside down fortress shrimp that eats by waving its fuckn legs (barnacle), camel moose with giant neck and bubble horns (giraffes), giant armor fish with needle teeth whose scales are RAZOR SHARP (alligator gar), pretty instant death harpoon tongued snail (geographic cone snail), stomachless knight snail (scaly foot gastropod), fuckn bazooka armed shrimp (pistol shrimp), fuckn stun snake (electric eel), glowing toxic leg worm (sierra bioluminescent millipede), t-rex deer with death kick (kangaroo), a tadpole that turns into a soapy rock with guts (pyura chiliensis), an animal that eats light and poops rock (corals), a kelp that grows two feet per day (gian kelp), and a super slug that changes colors, textures, and can squeeze through anywhere (octopus) and just like, what the fuck.

[jadafitch]

DANGEROUS STUFF!

For Halloween, a pattern of some of the most poisonous, venomous & toxic plants & animals in the world... geographic cone snail, poison fire coral fungi, golden dart frog, voodoo lily, castor bean plant, deathstalker scorpion, deadly nightshade, Brazilian wandering spider, lily of the valley, oleander, redback spider, banded krait, autumn skullcap, diamondback rattlesnake, death cap, angel's trumpets, stonefish, poison hemlock, box jelly, blue-ringed octopus.

Prints, Tees & More

[voxvulpi]

It's MerMay Day 2.  Geographer Cone Snails are super poisonous and shoot darts at their prey.  Originally I was thinking it would be an archer, but research lead me to change to a blow dart.  :)

[ekadogawa]

Happy International #WomenInScience Day! Shout out to all the badass lady scientists in my life; may we keep breaking barriers, being badass and doing science our own way ! PS : My job is to document the unknown invertebrate diversity of the across Indonesia . The task is impossible, but try we must, and science has shaped the goal into something reasonable and quantitative. On each island, one of my responsibilities is to collect dead coral heads. This probably sounds like a weird thing to do, but I can explain. The skeleton of many types of corals, such as Pocilopora, comprise numerous flattened, finger-like projections and lobes. When a coral head dies, its hard skeleton remains, and the nooks and holes between the lobes are prime real estate. Everybody wants to move in. After a few postmortem weeks or months, a dead coral head will be full of snapping shrimp, porcelain crabs, cone snails, polychaete worms, and many, many relatives. Collecting and documenting these diverse apartment buildings from the fore reef of each island provides a good slice of comparable biodiversity. All of these dead-head collections will give scientists an idea of how populations of species are connected through the vast oceans, what species occur where and why, and where species are the most abundant and diverse. In fact, all of the material collected will be available for loan to scientists anywhere and accessible online—photos, geographic coordinates, habitat information—meaning that Database collections will aid in scientific research for as long as the specimens are preserved and the data remain available online

[cri5toxd]

10 Things That Will Kill You in Under An Hour - Alltime10s

[syntheticsymphony]

One of these is a fuck-ugly spider.