10 facts about Marbled Cone Snail
- Even a drop of marbled cone snail’s venom is so powerful that it can kill more than 20 people.
- It is also known as “cigarette snail”, which means that most of the time, a person
stung by a cone snail has only time to smoke a cigarette before dying. - The venom is so dangerous that it can cause intense pain, tingling, numbness and swelling. It can affect a person’s hearing, vision and speech.
- Diet: Marine worms, small fish, mollusks and other cone snails.
- The snail traps its prey in a very unique way. It shoots out a toxic harpoon and reels in its prey - a passing fish, whenever it locates the same. The venom paralyzes its victim, which allows the snail to feast at its leisure.
- Habitat: Warm and tropical seas and oceans up to 90 m deep.
- A marbled cone snail can fire its harpoons in any direction, even backwards.
- These snails are found around reefs, where there is plenty of fish and other snails to feed on. They are spread over Australia, Caribbean, Pacific, Red Sea, and along the coast of Florida.
- In Hawaii, the shells of marbled cone snails were traditionally collected from the beach drift and used as beads to make puka shell jewelry.
- About 30 human deaths have been attributed to cone snail venom all over the world, till date.
