Tonna galea

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Tonna galea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Neotaenioglossa
Family: Tonnidae
Genus: Tonna
Species: T. galea
Binomial name
Tonna galea
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms

Buccinum olearium Linnaeus, 1758
Tonna olearium (Linnaeus, 1758)

Tonna galea is a very large species of sea snail or tun snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tonnidae, the tun shells.


Contents

[edit] Distribution

This species is endemic to the Indo-Pacific oceans, north to Japan and south to northern New Zealand.

[edit] Habitat

This large sea snail lives at depths of about 35 m.

[edit] Shell description

The shell is very large and thin, with a single spiral thread in each interspace of the corrugations.

The shell coloration is uniformly chestnut-brown, except for a fading to white in a broad subsutural band.

The shell height is up to 200 mm, and width up to 157 mm.

The snail's saliva contains 2-4 % sulfuric acid, by means of which it kills its prey, starfish.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ I. O. Alyakrinskaya: Morphofunctional Properties of Nutrition of Certain Predatory Gastropods. Biology Bulletin. ISSN 1062-3590. Vol. 29, no. 6 / November 2002