The Cigarette Snail!

benjaminpm96 (61)in #nature • 8 years ago

Hi Steemians!

From time immemorial, nature has managed to surprise us and leave us a little ... let's say stunned. And among many of these highly beautiful wonders of nature, we find The Snail “Conus geographus” or as many people commonly know "The Cigarette Snail" a striking sea snail that I will have the pleasure of sharing today. And if you are wondering but how striking can be a Snail called "Cigarette" ... Well, then I will explain to you where this name comes from and why they say colloquially so!

This name comes from a humorous joke, which pretends to say that a person who suffers the sting of one of them would hardly have time to smoke a cigarette before dying.

Yes, I said the word die!!! Then these Caracoles are no longer so flashy!

The Snail "Conus Geographus" comes from a somewhat extended family of 500 species of gastropod molluscs (Class of molluscs endowed with a fleshy foot that serves them to crawl, with the body generally protected by a shell or shell of a single piece, and one or two Pairs of sensory tentacles in the head.) Called Conidae, also known as "cones", are marine snails of tropical waters, in turn are carnivorous and feed on small fish, marine worms and other mollusks.

The Conus Geographus measures about 15 centimeters and has a conch shell with intricate brown and white designs, much appreciated by shell collectors.

It is the most poisonous of the 500 species already named and And of this, neither human beings are saved, a few deaths are already attributed. Its poison is a complex mixture of hundreds of different toxins, it uses a radular tooth (a structure that specializes in scraping food. It consists of a ribbon in which are found a number of longitudinal rows of small teeth) and a venom gland To attack and paralyze their prey before swallowing them. The tooth can be compared to a dart or harpoon. So far there is no antidote. The only thing that can be done is to keep the person alive until the toxins are eliminated.