The three main methods of perception used are visual (eyes to detect light), tactile (using its foot) and chemoreception (detecting dissolved chemicals in the water). It is likely that potential mates are detected using all three of these senses.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
This species is not listed as vulnerable, threatened, or endangered.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
Very little is known of the cone shell’s natural history from neoteny to adulthood. After the mating ritual, clusters of egg sacs (about 40 eggs per sac) are extruded and attached on a suitable hard surface. The eggs incubate within their capsule for 10 to 15 days before maturing into the larval stage. After twenty days, the transparent shells and bodies are visible, and they break from their capsules and drift in the plankton as meroplanktonic veliger larvae (a temporary zooplanktonic stage of the lifecycle). The larval diet is unknown, but assumed to be smaller plankton. Only a low percentage of cone snail larvae survive to metamorphose into benthic juveniles, and even fewer survive to reach adulthood. Planktonic survival rate is affected by weather and oceanographic factors such as water temperature, salinity, and ocean currents, as well as abundance of secondary consumers in the water column.
Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis ; indeterminate growth
The conantokins in one sting can kill 15 people. Symptoms include an excruciating pain at the penetrated area, much worse than a bee’s sting. As the pain fades, numbness soon sets in, followed by dizziness, slurred speech, and respiratory paralysis. Death can follow within half an hour afterward, but this is rare. Presently, there is no known anti-venom; applied pressure on the wound, immobilization and artificial respiration (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) are the only recommended treatments for the victim.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (bites or stings, venomous )
Conantokins ("sleeper peptides") from the geographic cone snail are a complex mix of short-chain peptides that affect a number of neural receptors in fish and mammals. The potential therapeutic and economic benefits from conantokins have great potential. Conantokins are antagonists to the nicotinic aceytlcholine receptors (the means by which the cone snails paralyze their prey) and N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors, which (in humans) are involved with pain reception, drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, memory, and learning. Con-G, one of the conantokins from the geographic cone snail, is a potent analgesic, particularly for nociceptive pain (pain that warns the body of tissue injury or other serious damage). Con-G specifically acts on the NR2B NMDA receptor subtype, which means it is more selective than morphine for treating chronic neuropathic pain found in patients suffering from cancer, arthritis, shingles, diabetes, and AIDS. Therefore, smaller doses can be used, and Con-G does not seem to be addictive or to have side effects in the therapeutic dose range, unlike morphine. In addition, since NMDA receptors are involved with memory, conantokins can potentially be used in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and possibly used as anti-convulsants in epilepsy or as a means of alleviating drug-induced withdrawal symptoms. In addition, Con-G has been found to act as a neuroprotective agent in brain ischemia from strokes.
Positive Impacts: source of medicine or drug
The geographic cone snail is a piscivore, thus it influences the ecosystem dynamics of coral reef populations of small fish species.
Conus geographus is nocturnal, hunting at night when its fish prey are the least active or at rest. They crawl on top of the substrate, or crawl while buried beneath the sand. Diet consists of small (30 to 50 mm) and medium (100 to 130 mm) sized fishes that fit into its rostrum (mouth). Larger snails (80 to 87 mm) are able to capture and ingest larger fishes between 130 and 140 mm in length.
Observations show that snails hunt with two methods used by other Conus species: the hook-and-line method and the net-hunting method. In the hook-and-line method, the snail slowly approaches its prey, waving its proboscis like a lure to attract the fish before stinging the fish with its radula. The fish jerks violently for a few moments and is injected with a paralyzing excitotoxin venom that stiffens the fish, allowing the cone snail to swallow it whole. Several hours or days later, the snail regurgitates the fish’s bones. Another method is net-hunting, wherein a fish is engulfed in one mouthful before being harpooned with the radular tooth.
Animal Foods: fish
Primary Diet: carnivore (Piscivore )
The geographic cone snail, Conus geographus, is indigenous to the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific regions, found specifically along the northern shores of Australia, ranging from the west coast (Brisbane, Queensland), central (Darwin, Northern Territory), and east coast (Exmouth, Western Australia). Rare sightings (and recorded fatalities) have also been reported in New Caledonia.
Biogeographic Regions: australian (Native ); indian ocean (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )
Geographic cone snails are most commonly found in the sublittoral epipelagic zone. Their surrounding habitat includes living or fragmented coral reefs, and sandy regions within tidal zones. They are less commonly found in deeper waters.
Range depth: 0 to 200 m.
Habitat Regions: tropical
Aquatic Biomes: benthic ; coastal
Other Habitat Features: intertidal or littoral
There is no recorded data of any longevity in the wild or captivity.
A calcareous, smooth shell covers the mollusk’s soft body. The shell spire is obconical (having a length of less than or equal to 10% of the entire structure) featuring coronation (small bumps) at and above the shoulder along the edges of the larger whorls. The spire is concave with smooth sutures and a prominent point at the protoconch apex. The body whorl terminates in an elongated aperture that has a width of about 1/3 of the overall shell width. The outer shell’s coloration ranges from ground colors of white, cream, or rose pink overlain with brown or red mottled patterns arranged in horizontal spirals along the body whorl. The shell is covered with a thin yellowish layer of protein-based material called the periostracum, forming tufts on the spire, on the spiral rows, and along the body whorl, following the sculpture of the shell. This protein covering gives the cone a roughened appearance.
The most obvious features of the geographic cone snail are the foot, which extends from the aperture; two small eyes borne on eyestalks, and two features associated with their feeding habits: the proboscis, an extendable protrusion in the oral region that expands to swallow its prey, and the siphon, an extension of the mantle tissue, used for chemoreception of its prey. The cone snail uses a elaborately scuplted, hollow radular tooth (housed in the proboscis) as a harpoon to incapacitate its prey. Venom glands produce deadly toxins and digestive enzymes, and these are injected into the snail’s prey through the radular tooth.
Range mass: 13.3 to 62 g.
Average mass: 38.8 g.
Range length: 70 to 150 mm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry ; venomous
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Predators during its larval period include nektonic fishes and filer-feeding invertebrates that consume zooplankton. As an adult, the only enemies the geographic cone snail may fear are mollusk-eating vertebrates such as sea turtles and rays, and human shell collectors. The radular tooth also serves as a defense mechanism against potential predators.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Published observations on reproductive behavior were made in aquaria, and direct observations on ritual courtships or competition for a mate in the wild is lacking. Some researchers hypothesize that male cone snails may exhibit territoriality to ensure access to potential mates.
During copulation, the male mounts the female using its foot. It inserts about 2/3 of a ribbon-like organ called the verge (analogous to a penis) into the female’s opening near the anal notch. This position is maintained for at least 15 minutes before the male retracts its verge. Two to three days later, the female lays several capsules eggs on a hard surface. No information is available as to whether mating occurs singly or at multiple times across the lifespan.
Mating System: monogamous
Sexual maturity may occur between 6 to 12 months. After mating, the female lays her egg capsules on a smooth, hard surface, where they develop into larvae in twenty days.
Breeding interval: Geographic cone snails breed once a year.
Breeding season: Between April and September when the waters are warm.
Range number of offspring: 1000 to 5000.
Average number of offspring: 2500.
Range gestation period: 2 to 3 days.
Average gestation period: 3 days.
Range time to independence: 15 to 25 days.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 6 to 12 months.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 6 to 12 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous
There is no further investment in parental care after eggs are laid, as is the case for most marine invertebrates.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; precocial ; pre-fertilization
Conus geographus, popularly called the geography cone or the geographer cone, is a species of predatory cone snail. It lives in reefs of the tropical Indo-Pacific, and hunts small fish. While all cone snails hunt and kill prey using venom, the venom of conus geographus is potent enough to kill humans.[3]
The variety Conus geographus var. rosea G. B. Sowerby I, 1833 is a synonym of Conus eldredi Morrison, 1955.
This species is the type species of :
C. geographus has a broad, thin shell, cylindrically inflated. Geography cones grow to about 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) in length. The size of an adult shell varies between 43 and 166 mm (1.7 and 6.5 in). The ground color of the shell is pink or violaceous white, occasionally reddish. It has a mottled appearance, clouded and coarsely reticulated with chestnut or chocolate, usually forming two very irregular bands. This intricate brown-and-white pattern is highly prized by shell collectors.[4]
The geography cone has a wide, violaceous white or pink aperture and numerous shoulder ridges or spines.[3] The shell is covered with thread-like revolving striae, usually nearly obsolete except at the base. The flattened spire is striated and coronated.[3][5]
In comparison with other species, the shell has a noticeably wider and convex mid-body, with a flattened spire. Its walls are also noticeably thinner and lighter compared to other cone shells of similar length and size.
Apertural view
Abapertural view
Apical view
Geography cones are common. They occur in the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean off Chagos, Réunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania. They are indigenous to the reefs of the Indo-Pacific region, except for Hawaii,[4] and off Australia (the Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia).
C. geographus is a piscivore that dwells in sediment of shallow reefs,[3] preying on small fish. Like the other cone snails, it fires a harpoon-like, venom-tipped modified tooth into its prey; the harpoon is attached to the body by a proboscis, and the prey is pulled inside for ingestion.
The geography cone snail is highly dangerous; live specimens should be handled with extreme caution.[3] C. geographus has the most toxic sting known among Conus species and there are reports for about three dozen human fatalities in 300 years. The venom has an LD50 toxicity in of 0.012-0.030 mg/kg.[4][6][7] The venom of the geography cone snail is a complex mix of hundreds of different toxins that is delivered through toxoglossan radula, a harpoon-like tooth propelled from an extendable proboscis. There is no antivenom for a cone snail sting, and treatment consists of keeping victims alive until the toxins wear off.[4] The geography cone is also known colloquially as the "cigarette snail", a gallows humor exaggeration implying that, when stung by this creature, the victim will have only enough time to smoke a cigarette before dying.[8][9] In reality, even the most venomous cone snails take about one to five hours to kill a healthy human, though medical care must still be prompt as, without it, death is almost certain. [10]
Among the compounds found in cone snail venom are proteins which, when isolated, have great potential as pain-killing drugs. Research shows that certain component proteins of the venom target specific human pain receptors and can be up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine without morphine's addictive properties and side-effects.[4] Conantokin-G is a toxin derived from the venom of C. geographus. Only 15-20 of the venom's 100-200 toxic peptides are used for feeding. It is believed that the other compounds are defensive, and that the venom is mainly used for defense.[6]
Recent research has revealed that C. geographus uses a form of insulin as a means of stunning its prey. This insulin is distinct from its own (with shorter chains) and appears to be a stripped down version of those insulins found in fish. Once this venom passes through a fish's gills, the fish experiences hypoglycaemic shock, essentially stunning it and allowing for ingestion by the snail. This poison mixture has been referred to as nirvana cabal. Along with the tulip cone snail C. tulipa, no other species of any known lifeform is known to have used its own biological insulin as a weapon.[11]
This article incorporates CC-BY-3.0 text from the reference.[3]
Conus geographus, popularly called the geography cone or the geographer cone, is a species of predatory cone snail. It lives in reefs of the tropical Indo-Pacific, and hunts small fish. While all cone snails hunt and kill prey using venom, the venom of conus geographus is potent enough to kill humans.
The variety Conus geographus var. rosea G. B. Sowerby I, 1833 is a synonym of Conus eldredi Morrison, 1955.
This species is the type species of :
Gastridium Modeer, 1793 Rollus Montfort, 1810 Utriculus Schumacher, 1817
