''Californiconus californicus'', commonly called the Californian cone, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of small,

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

in the family Conidae, the cone snails. As both the scientific and common names suggest, this cone is found along the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

n coast.

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

, 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: 146–153
full text
The range of this species is from the

Farallon Islands The Farallon Islands ( ), or Farallones (), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil's ...

near

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to Bahía Magdalena, in

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

This cone is found in both rocky and sandy areas, in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

, and subtidally down to 30 meters depth

Shell description

This shell is distinguished by its grayish-brown color and thick

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 an ...

. It is round-shouldered with the

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

broader at the base. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

is flat-sided, and the height of the shell ranges from 25–40 mm.McLean, James H., 1978 ''Marine Shells of Southern California'', Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Museum, Science Series 24, 51–52.

Feeding habits

The California cone hunts and eats marine worms, fish, and other mollusks. It is also a

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume Corpse decomposition, dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a he ...

Gallery

File:Conus californicus.jpg, A live individual of the California cone, ''Californiconus californicus'', anterior end towards the right File:Conus californicus 1.jpg, ''Californiconus californicus'' Reeve, L.A., 1844 File:Conus californicus 2.jpg, ''Californiconus californicus'' Reeve, L.A., 1844 File:Conus californicus 3.jpg, ''Californiconus californicus'' Reeve, L.A., 1844

Fossil record

Fossils of ''Californiconus californicus'' have been recovered from the Late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

strata of

Isla Vista, California Isla Vista ( ; , "Island View") is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California, in the United States. As of 2020 census, the community had a population of 15,500. For statistical purposes, ...

References

* Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009) ''Systematic classification of Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods''. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 296 pp.
Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015). ''One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails.'' Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1–23

External links

Cone Shells – Knights of the Sea
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q28915281 californicus Gastropods described in 1844