It just goes to show, nature is amazing! You never know what may be useful to us, but even without that, they’re still a fascinating species, and very beautiful to look at as well.Īnd if that’s whet your appetite for more watery dangers, we have plenty more cone shells on display at the museum. It’s actually in use today as a major component in some powerful painkillers! There’s also research ongoing into other potential uses – anaesthetics, muscle relaxants and even as treatment for various conditions such as diabetes. Because conotoxins are designed to target highly specific receptors in its victims’ bodies, it is also the subject of much recent interest and research. ![]() Not all death and danger…Īnd it’s not all death and danger. textile ) is the third one from the end, with the beautiful almost woven-looking patterns. Luckily, these snails prefer deeper water, so you’re not likely to come across one in a rock-pool. Look but don’t touch! Be careful if you ever see one of these while diving. Just 35, you say? For most people, its effect is roughly equivalent to a bad bee sting – the deaths are likely to be people who have had a particularly bad reaction (Jurassic Park was at least correct on there being no known antidote, so it’s still a bad idea to risk it!). Looking at the picture below of the nice shells we have on display, take a closer look at the one third from the right… yep, that’s the one. ![]() The deadliest cone shell is the textile cone ( C. However, as with many things in the Jurassic Park series, this is an exaggeration (we often get people surprised at how little our life-size Velociraptor model is, too). You’d be dead before you realized you’d had an accident.” The animal’s down before it feels the prick of the dart.”Įddie Carr: “What, like if you shot yourself in the foot? Don’t do that. Faster than the nerve-conduction velocity. Acts within a two-thousandth of a second. Their venom even found fame in the movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), where one of the characters said the following about his ability to take down dinosaurs with his air rifle:Įddie Carr: “I loaded the enhanced venom of Conus purpurascens, the South Sea cone shell. The modified radulae, sometime known as ‘harpoons’, vary in exact shape between species, but they mostly look somewhat like this. This leads to intense stinging pain, and in some cases, muscle paralysis, blurred vision, and respiratory paralysis (which essentially, would mean you would die). It’s a neurotoxin, which works by blocking or inhibiting parts of the skeletal muscle channels, and with some species the cardiac and nerve tissues, too, causing effects such as stinging sensations, paralysis, and/or cyanosis (lack of blood flow). And yes, the venom from these snails – known as conotoxins – can kill. ![]() It’s lucky for us that we’re too big to eat, because otherwise I’m sure that’s what these snails would do just that. This one isn’t very enthusiastic about its lunch despite the owner trying to mimic a fish’s movements, but if you didn’t sign up to see a snail eat a fish, maybe give this one a miss.īut that radula barb doesn’t just work on fish – people can also be hooked and have the venom injected in them if the snail feels like they need to defend themselves, and the harpoon is long and sharp enough to go through clothing. The snail is enticed to extend its proboscis (with radula inside) by water being blown onto it before its food is presented. The snail can then use this to shoot out and hook into passing fish, injecting them with its venom and swallowing them whole.ĭon’t believe me? Then let’s get right to it.Ĭone shell in an aquarium eating dead fish. Instead of being tucked away inside the mouth, their radula are located in a proboscis that extends out of their mouth, becoming long and spear-shaped. This isn’t the case with the deadly cone shell, however. For those of you that don’t, the brief version is that the radula is usually a sort of tongue-with-teeth inside the mouth of molluscs, which helps them to grind their food.ĭiagram of a typical mollusc radula showing how they eat and break up their food… Yummy! ( Source) For those of you that want that juicy info, part one can be found here. In the previous instalment, I began by hyping up a particularly deadly snail with a radula that could kill you, and then explained what a radula was, without really explaining how. And to keep up to date with the museum’s development and transformation, have a look at the hello future blog. Today’s Story from the Museum Floor is the second part of Bryony’s series about cone shells – some of the deadliest snails in our collection! Today we find out just how these creatures can kill you…įor more fascinating stories about the collections here at Manchester Museum, check out our Curator’s blogs.
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