bogleech:

I think I’ve blogged this guy before; an ultra minor transformers character whose spear changes the gender of foes.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Escargon

It’s clearly a reference to the “love darts” snails stab each other with when mating.

rhamphotheca:

The Venom Cure:  Cone Shell Cures

from Nature - PBS

When it comes to research on venom and converting it into useful drugs, studies involving exotic snakes or brightly colored frogs seem to attract the most attention. However, one of the most promising new venom-derived drugs actually comes from a very modest-looking sea snail.

Worldwide, there are more than 600 kinds of cone shells found mostly in tropical waters around the Pacific. Collectors love them because their shells are decorated with an amazing array of intricate patterns.

Biologists, however, have long been fascinated by the behavior of these clever hunters. Some cone shells target other snails, while others like to feast on fish. To sense food, cone shells filter water through a tubelike organ called a siphon, awaiting a whiff of the telltale chemicals emitted by their prey…

(read more: PBS)       

rhamphotheca:

Strawberry Conch (Strombus luhuanus). Fairy Bower, Manly, NSW, Australia

This tropical conch is at the extreme southern end of its range here in Sydney, but seems to be doing quite well in the reserve — I sighted three individuals in one dive. This is a juvenile which has not yet developed a pronounced stromboid notch — so I thought it must be a cone shell.

Thanks to Des Beechey of the Australian Museum for correctly identifying this species, as well as some denizens of DiveOz.

(text/photos: Richard Ling)

rhamphotheca:

Cephalopoda. Cuttlefishes. Pteropoda - Gastropoda. Univalve Shells.

from Natural history of the animal kingdom for the use of young people
Brighton :E. & J.B. Young and Co.,1889.

(via:  biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28687568)

eye-tooth:

gastropod on Flickr.

this little one was such a willing model.

rhamphotheca:

Swimming Pelagic Heteropod

Virtually transparent, this pterotracheid heteropod gastropod mollusk Carinaria sp has hardly any shell. It flies through the water in pursuit of planktic prey on a snail foot that has been modified into a sort of wing.

(vis Science 360)     (image: Sönke Johnsen Lab, Duke Univ.)

eye-tooth:

red frilly snail on Flickr.

eye-tooth:

gastropod on Flickr.

rhamphotheca:

haydarhaydar: Blue Sea Slug, Glaucus atlanticus, through the looking glass

bogleech:

IT’S A WHELK!!!!!!!