King helmet

King helmet
A live C. tuberosa in situ
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily: Tonnoidea
Family: Cassidae
Subfamily: Cassinae
Genus: Cassis
Subgenus: Cassis
Species: C. tuberosa
Binomial name
Cassis tuberosa
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The king helmet, Cassis tuberosa, is a species of very large sea snail with a solid, heavy shell, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cassidae, the helmet shells and their allies.

Distribution

This species occurs in the Western Atlantic Ocean in: North Carolina, Florida, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Brazil, and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean at the Cape Verde Islands.

Ventral side, animal alive but soft parts retracted

Description

The maximum recorded shell length is 301 mm.[1]

Habitat

Its minimum recorded depth is 0 m.[1] and maximum recorded depth is 27 m.[1]

Human use

The shell of this species has been used for creating cameos.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.

External links

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