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Californiconus
''Californiconus'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. The experts at WoRMS place this group of species in the family Conidae, the cone snails, but some other experts placed previously the genus in a proposed family, the Conilithidae. This is a monotypic genus. Use of this genus in the binomial name of this species was, until 2015, treated by the experts at WoRMS as an "alternative representation" of the species. (When the "alternative representation" was not used, this species was still placed in the Linnaean genus ''Conus''.) In 2015 Puillandre ''et al.'' placed ''Conus californicus'' as the sole member of its own genus as '' Californiconus californicus'' This species has always been considered a species with unique characteristics within ''Conidae'', because it shows diverging molecular (including toxicological) and morphological characteristics. Its generalist diet includes fish, other molluscs and worms, contrary to what is the case in other cone snail s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Californiconus Californicus
''Californiconus californicus'', common name the Californian cone, is a species of small, predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Conidae, the cone snails. As both the Latin name and common name suggest, this cone is found in California. Distribution and habitat This small cone snail is unusual, in that most cone snail species are tropical, whereas this species lives in the cooler, temperate waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, including most of the coast of California.Stewart J. & Gilly W. F. (October 2005). "Piscivorous Behavior of a Temperate Cone Snail, ''Conus californicus''". ''Biological Bulletin'' 209: 146–153full text The range of this species is from the Farallon Islands near San Francisco to Bahia Magdalena, in Baja California, Mexico This cone is found in both rocky and sandy areas, in the intertidal zone, and subtidally down to 30 meters depth Shell description This shell is distinguished by its grayish-brown color and thick periostracum. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conidae
Conidae, with the current common name of "cone snails", is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea. The 2014 classification of the superfamily Conoidea, groups only cone snails in the family Conidae. Some previous classifications grouped the cone snails in a subfamily, Coninae. As of March 2015 Conidae contained over 800 recognized species. Working in 18th-century Europe, Carl Linnaeus knew of only 30 species that are still considered valid. The snails within this family are sophisticated predatory animals. They hunt and immobilize prey using a modified radular tooth along with a venom gland containing neurotoxins; the tooth is launched out of the snail's mouth in a harpoon-like action. Because all cone snails are venomous and capable of "stinging" humans, live ones should be handled with great care or preferably not at all. Current taxonomy In the ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'', in 2014, Pui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tucker & Tenorio Cone Snail Taxonomy 2009
The taxonomy of the cone snails and their allies as proposed by John K. Tucker and Manuel J. Tenorio in 2009 was a biological classification system for a large group of predatory sea snails. This system was an attempt to make taxonomic sense of the large and diverse group which contains the family Conidae, the cone snails.Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009) Systematic classification of Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 296 pp., at p. 133 The authors proposed extensive changes to the family Conidae in contrast to the way the group was treated in the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005. Bouchet and Rocroi included in the family Conidae several other groups of toxoglossan snails which had previously been placed in the Turridae. For the over 600 recognized species of living cone snails, Tucker and Tenorio's classification system proposed 3 distinct families and 82 genera. The authors discussed in detail 89 genera and five families in total ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conilithidae
Conilithidae is a proposed taxonomic family of small to medium-sized sea snails, specifically cone snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea, the cone snails and their allies.Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009) Systematic classification of Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 296 pp., at p. 133Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". ''Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 397 pp. In 2009, John K. Tucker and Manuel J. Tenorio proposed elevating the subfamily Conilithinae (previously placed in the family Conidae) to the rank of family. This was based on a cladistic analysis of anatomical characters, including the radular tooth, the morphology (i.e. shell characters), as well as an analysis of prior molecular phylogeny studies, all of which were used to construct phylogenetic trees. In their phylogeny, Tucker and Tenorio noted the close relationship of the various species within the genera i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protoconch
A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called "nucleus". The protoconch may sometimes consist of several whorls, but when this is the case, the whorls show no growth lines. The whorls of the adult shell, which are formed after the protoconch, are known as the teleoconch. The teleoconch starts forming when the larval gastropod becomes a juvenile, and the protoconch may dissolve. Quite often there is a visible line of demarcation where the protoconch ends and the teleoconch begins, and there may be a noticeable change in sculpture, or a sudden appearance of sculpture at that point. In some gastropod groups (such as the Architectonicidae), the teleoconch whorls spiral in the opposite direction to the protoconch. In those cases, the shell is called heterostrophic. In species which ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radula
The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters the esophagus. The radula is unique to the molluscs, and is found in every class of mollusc except the bivalves, which instead use cilia, waving filaments that bring minute organisms to the mouth. Within the gastropods, the radula is used in feeding by both herbivorous and carnivorous snails and slugs. The arrangement of teeth ( denticles) on the radular ribbon varies considerably from one group to another. In most of the more ancient lineages of gastropods, the radula is used to graze, by scraping diatoms and other microscopic algae off rock surfaces and other substrates. Predatory marine snails such as the Naticidae use the radula plus an acidic secretion to bore through the shell of other molluscs. Other predatory marine snails ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia. It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, nor the Tropical Eastern Pacific, along the Pacific coast of the Americas, which is also a distinct marine realm. The term is especially useful in marine biology, ichthyology, and similar fields, since many marine habitats are continuously connected from Madagascar to Japan and Oceania, and a number of species occur over that range, but are not found in the Atlantic Ocean. The region has an exceptionally high species richness, with the world's highest species richness being found in at its heart in the Coral Triangle, and a remarkable gradient of decreasing species richness radiating outward in al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molluscivore
A molluscivore is a carnivorous animal that specialises in feeding on molluscs such as gastropods, bivalves, brachiopods and cephalopods. Known molluscivores include numerous predatory (and often cannibalistic) molluscs, (e.g.octopuses, murexes, decollate snails and oyster drills), arthropods such as crabs and firefly larvae, and, vertebrates such as fish, birds and mammals. Molluscivory is performed in a variety ways with some animals highly adapted to this method of feeding behaviour. A similar behaviour, durophagy, describes the feeding of animals that consume hard-shelled or exoskeleton bearing organisms, such as corals, shelled molluscs, or crabs. Description Molluscivory can be performed in several ways: *In some cases, the mollusc prey are simply swallowed entire, including the shell, whereupon the prey is killed through suffocation and or exposure to digestive enzymes. Only cannibalistic sea slugs, snail-eating cone shells of the taxon Coninae, and some sea anemones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gastropods
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. There are many thousands of species of sea snails and slugs, as well as freshwater snails, freshwater limpets, and land snails and slugs. The class Gastropoda contains a vast total of named species, second only to the insects in overall number. The fossil history of this class goes back to the Late Cambrian. , 721 families of gastropods are known, of which 245 are extinct and appear only in the fossil record, while 476 are currently extant with or without a fossil record. Gastropoda (previously known as univalves and sometimes spelled "Gasteropoda") are a major part of the phylum Mollusca, and are the most highly diversified class in the phylum, with 65,000 to 80,000 living snail and slug species. The anatomy, behavior, feeding, and reproduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periostracum
The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods and bivalves, but it is also found in cephalopods such as ''Allonautilus scrobiculatus''. The periostracum is an integral part of the shell, and it forms as the shell forms, along with the other shell layers. The periostracum is used to protect the organism from corrosion. The periostracum is visible as the outer layer of the shell of many molluscan species from terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats, and may be seen in land snails, river mussels, and other kinds of freshwater bivalves, as well as in many kinds of marine shelled molluscs. The word ''periostracum'' means "around the shell", meaning that the periostracum is wrapped around what is usually the more calcareous part of the shell. Technically, the calcareous part of the shel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bivalves
Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bivalves have no head and they lack some usual molluscan organs, like the radula and the odontophore. They include the clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, and numerous other families that live in saltwater, as well as a number of families that live in freshwater. The majority are filter feeders. The gills have evolved into ctenidia, specialised organs for feeding and breathing. Most bivalves bury themselves in sediment, where they are relatively safe from predation. Others lie on the sea floor or attach themselves to rocks or other hard surfaces. Some bivalves, such as the scallops and file shells, can swim. The shipworms bore into wood, clay, or stone and live inside these substances. The shell of a bivalve is composed of calc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vermivore
Vermivore (from Latin vermi, meaning "worm" and vorare, "to devour") is a Zoology, zoological term for animals that eat worms (including annelids, nematodes, and other worm-like animals). Animals with such a diet are known to be vermivorous. Some definitions are less exclusive with respect to the diet, but limit the definition to particular animals, e.g. "Feeding on worms or insect vermin. Used of a bird." An entire genus of New World warblers has been given the name ''Vermivora''. One vermivore that may feed exclusively on worms is ''Paucidentomys vermidax'', a rodent species of a type commonly known as shrew rats which was discovered in 2011 in Indonesia. The name, which can be translated as "worm-eating, few-toothed mouse", refers to the fact that they have only four teeth and may live exclusively on a diet of earthworms.Esselstyn, J.A., Achmadi, A.S. Rowe, K.C. (2012). Evolutionary novelty in a rat with no molars. Biology Letters, published online 22 August 2012, This reduce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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