''Conus marmoreus'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

the marbled 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), ...

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 ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family Conidae, the

cone snail Cone snails, or cones, are highly venomous sea snails that constitute the family Conidae. ''Conidae'' is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea. The 2014 classification of ...

s, cone shells or cones. It is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

for the genus ''

Conus ''Conus'' is a genus of venomous and predatory cone snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2015). Conus Linnaeus, 1758. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&i ...

'', which is the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

of the family. This is a species which is believed to feed mostly on marine mollusks including other cone snails.Bouchet, P. (2015). Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=215457 on 2015-10-30 This snail is venomous, like all cone snails. The subspecies: ''Conus marmoreus bandanus'' Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 is a synonym of '' Conus bandanus'' Hwass in Bruguière, 1792

Distribution

This species occurs in the Indian Ocean off

Chagos The Chagos Archipelago (, ) or Chagos Islands (formerly , and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmo ...

and

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

off India; in the western part of the Pacific Ocean to

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

; off Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Shell description

The size of an adult shell can vary between . The flattish

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 nodular. The outer

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

flares towards posterior. In this species, the distinctive, reticulated colour pattern can range from black with white dots, to orange with white reticulations, so arranged as to expose the white in rounded triangular large spots. 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 ...

is white or light pink.

George Washington Tryon George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, ''Manual of Conchology'' vol. VI, p. 7; 1879

In art

In 1650

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

portrayed this cone in an etching as "De schelp" ("The shell").

Gallery

File:B159 Rembrandt.jpg, "De schelp" ("The shell"), etching by Rembrandt Image:Conus-marmoreus-001.jpg, The shell of ''Conus marmoreus'' from ''Index Testarum Conchyliorum'' (1742) by

Niccolò Gualtieri Niccolò Gualtieri (9 July 1688 – 15 February 1744) was an Italian medical doctor and malacologist. He established a private natural history collection, and catalogued its contents, the best known being of the molluscs. Gualtieri was born in ...

Image:Conusmarmoreus.jpg, A

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

of ''Conus marmoreus'' after it has been cleaned File:Conus_marmoreus_01.jpg, The shell of ''Conus marmoreus'' in various aspects File:Conus marmoreus 1.jpg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, C., 1758 File:Conus marmoreus 2.jpg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, C., 1758 File:Conus marmoreus 3.jpg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, C., 1758 File:Conus marmoreus 4.jpg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, C., 1758 File:Conus marmoreus 5.jpg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, C., 1758 Naturalis Biodiversity Center - ZMA.MOLL.164761 - Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758 - Conidae - Mollusc shell.jpeg, ''Conus marmoreus'' Linnaeus, 1758, museum specimens with species tags

References

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae. ii, 824 pp
* Röding, P.F. 1798. ''Museum Boltenianum sive Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa.'' Hamburg : Trappii 199 pp. * Perry, G. 1811. ''Conchology, or the natural history of shells containing a new arrangement of the genera and species, illustrated by coloured engravings, executed from the natural specimens and including the latest discoveries''. London : W. Miller 4 pp., 62 pls. * Sowerby, G.B. (1st) 1839. ''Conus''. pls 153-158 in Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) (ed). The Conchological Illustrations or coloured figures of all the hitherto unfigured recent shells. London : G.B. Sowerby (2nd). * Bernardi, M. 1861. ''Description de deux espèces du genre Cone''. Journal de Conchyliologie 9: 168-171 * Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) 1870. ''Descriptions of forty-eight new species of shells.'' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1870: 249–259 * Crosse, H. 1872. ''Diagnoses molluscorum Novae Caledoniae incolarum''. Journal de Conchyliologie 20: 154-157 * Crosse, H. 1875. ''Note sur une espèces manuscrite de M. le Professeur G.P. Deshayes''. Journal de Conchyliologie 23: 223-225 * Crosse, H. 1878. ''Description d'espèces nouvelles de Mollusques''. Journal de Conchyliologie 26: 166-169 * Smith, E.A. 1897. ''Notes on some type-specimens in the British Museum.'' Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 2(5): 229-232 * Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). ''Mollusques testacés marins de Madagascar''. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III * Allan, J.K. 1950. ''Australian Shells: with related animals living in the sea, in freshwater and on the land.'' Melbourne : Georgian House xix, 470 pp., 45 pls, 112 text figs. * Satyamurti, S.T. 1952. ''Mollusca of Krusadai Is. I. Amphineura and Gastropoda''. Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, Natural History ns 1(no. 2, pt 6): 267 pp., 34 pls * Demond, J. 1957. ''Micronesian reef associated gastropods''. Pacific Science 11(3): 275-341, fig. 2, pl. 1 * Gillett, K. & McNeill, F. 1959. ''The Great Barrier Reef and Adjacent Isles: a comprehensive survey for visitor, naturalist and photographer''. Sydney : Coral Press 209 pp. * Wilson, B.R. & Gillett, K. 1971. ''Australian Shells: illustrating and describing 600 species of marine gastropods found in Australian waters.'' Sydney : Reed Books 168 pp. * Hinton, A. 1972. ''Shells of New Guinea and the Central Indo-Pacific''. Milton : Jacaranda Press xviii 94 pp. * Cernohorsky, W.O. 1978. ''Tropical Pacific Marine Shells''. Sydney : Pacific Publications 352 pp., 68 pls. * Kay, E.A. 1979. ''Hawaiian Marine Shells. Reef and shore fauna of Hawaii. Section 4 : Mollusca''. Honolulu, Hawaii : Bishop Museum Press Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication Vol. 64(4) 653 pp. * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp. * Röckel, D., Korn, W. & Kohn, A.J. 1995. ''Manual of the Living Conidae. Volume 1: Indo-Pacific Region.'' Wiesbaden : Hemmen 517 pp. * Filmer R.M. (2001). ''A Catalogue of Nomenclature and Taxonomy in the Living Conidae 1758 - 1998.'' Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 388pp * Tucker J.K. (2009). ''Recent cone species database.'' September 4, 2009 Edition
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

The Conus Biodiversity Website : ''Conus marmoreus''

- Information on this species

by James Grout.

- More information on ''Conus marmoreus'' *
Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea

Holotype in MNHN, Paris
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conus Marmoreus marmoreus Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus