''Lyncina leviathan'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of tropical

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a cowry, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod 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. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.WoRMS : Lyncina leviathan
accessed : 17 October 2010

Description

The shells of these cowries reach on average of length, with a minimum size of and a maximum size of . The dorsum surface of these elongated, smooth and shiny shells is pink-salmon, crossed by darker bands. The base is whitish or pale pinkish or pale brown, with a long and wide aperture with several teeth. In the living cowries the mantle is brownish, almost transparent and well developed, with external antennae and several sensorial tree-shaped papillae. This species is superficially similar to '' Lyncina carneola''.

Distribution

''Lyncina leviathan'' is common throughout the tropical

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(

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) and the central

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

s, in the sea along

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and

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Habitat

They inhabit rocky intertidal areas and caves in very shallow water, but they can reach up to of depth.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are known: * ''Lyncina leviathan leviathan'' Schilder & Schilder, 1937- leviathan cowry, endemic to

* ''Lyncina leviathan bouteti'' Burgess & Arnette, 1981- Boutet's leviathan cowry, found throughout

* ''Lyncina leviathan titan'' Schilder & Schilder, 1962- titanic cowry, found throughout the

and central

References

* Lorenz F. & Hubert A. (2000) A guide to worldwide cowries. Edition 2. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 584 pp * Burgess, C.M. (1970). The Living Cowries. AS Barnes and Co, Ltd. Cranbury, New Jersey

Bibliography

Cowrie Genetic Database Project

External links

Biolib

On-line articles with ''Cypraea leviathan'' in the HAWAIIAN SHELL NEWS (1960-1994)
Hawaiian shell
Clade

Cypraeidae Gastropods described in 1937 {{Cypraeidae-stub