Ice Cream Cone + Gastropod = Our Next VPC

Hi, y'all. I've been checking out our latest VPC (Very Poisonous Creature) for a couple of days. Aside from getting sidetracked on YouTube watching videos of the Loch Ness monster for a couple of hours, I have learned some very interesting things about this ocean gastropod, known as the Cone Shell.photo: wickipedia.org Textile Cone

The snail is so named because the shell resembles an ice cream cone - except that's not ice cream in there. It's a big, muscular foot, and a big siphon tube mouth, and a couple of stalk eyes - oh yeah, and some nasty harpoon teeth.

Doot-De-Doo, hohum, hohum, along slides the snail, beautiful and harmless looking, with that proboscis sticking out, smelling the water. For what? For dinner. Then along comes a hapless little fish, or human hand or foot (curiosity killed the FILL IN THE BLANK), and chemicals secreted by the curious victims enter the proboscis of the snail.

It does a little searching with that long, skinny mouth/nose, and then...BAM!!! BAM, BAM!!! Dinner is served. Or in the case of the human hand, that little harpoon tooth has just delivered the goods. Which, of course, isn't really good at all, even if you've got a hold of such a pretty shell...

The story of the monkey who stuck his fist in the jar and then got beat over the head comes to mind...



Cone shells are very common. There are over 1000 species of cone shells, which have varying diets. They may eat other mollusks, sea worms, crustaceans, or small fish. Mostly, they are from 2 to 4 inches long, but the ones that eat fish grow up to 10 inches long. These fish-eating cone shells are the most dangerous to humans. Fortunately, there are only a few of these types - among them, the Textile Cone and Geography Cone. When their harpoon teeth are injected into the victim, they inject a milky venom which is a neurotoxin.

This venom will cause fish to be paralyzed in a few seconds, and to get a free slidey ride down a snail gullet. In humans, it causes blurred vision, slurred speech, numbness, and difficulty breathing (sounds like a few too many beers). If it is severe enough, it will cause respiratory failure in a few hours, and sometimes death.

There is no antivenin for the venom, so the only cure is life support and time, which allows the toxins to finally be dissipated by the body. Some say that about 20% of all cone shell stings result in death, more than the percentage for the cobra snake.

Although the bigger cones can be deadly, only fifteen deaths can be confidently attributed worldwide to the cone shell in the record books. The smaller ones (the vast majority of the cone species), produce a sting no more painful than that of a bee.

In spite of the downside to the venom of the cone shells, there is a great upside. The venom is very promising in serving as a basis for some very powerful and beneficial drugs. At the moment, there is research being conducted on its use as a cure for Alzheimer's disease, as well as a pain killer 1000 times more powerful than morphine, but without any side effects.

So on your next visit to the Great Barrier Reef, where there are 18 species of cone shells, a good rule of thumb is to keep your thumbs off of them. This will save you from a painful trip to the ER and being another guinea pig in cone shell venom research!!

Happy Snorkeling!