Venus comb murex

Venus comb murex
Venus comb murex
A live Murex pecten in situ
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Muricoidea
Family: Muricidae
Genus: Murex
Species: M. pecten
Binomial name
Murex pecten
Lightfoot, 1786

The Venus comb murex, scientific name Murex pecten, is a species of large predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the rock snails or murex snails. The shell of this Indo-Pacific species has a very long siphonal canal, and numerous spines.

Contents

Distribution

This species is native to Indo-Pacific waters.

Shell description

The shell of this snail has an extremely long siphonal canal.

The shell has over one hundred spines, which provide protection from predation, and prevent the snail from sinking in the soft mud. Like many other murex snails, it feeds on other mollusks.

This is a common species, but perfect specimens of the shell are not easily found because of the fragility of the numerous long spines. The species grows to between 10 and 15 cm in length.

X-ray image of the shell of Murex pecten, anterior end downwards.
Posterior and side views of a shell that is 15 cm long

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Venus comb —       marine snail, a species of murex (q.v.). * * * …   Universalium

  • Murex — For the historical iron industry company, see Murex (company). Murex Apertural view of the shell of Venus Comb Murex, Murex pecten, anterior end towards the bottom of the page Sc …   Wikipedia

  • Murex —   Murex …   Wikipedia Español

  • Murex scolopax — Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastrop …   Wikipedia

  • venus's-comb — noun also venus comb (plural venus s combs) Usage: usually capitalized V 1. : lady s comb 2. : a marine snail (Murex tenuispina) having a long tubular canal with a row of long slender spines along both of its borders and rows of similar spines on …   Useful english dictionary

  • murex — /myoor eks/, n., pl. murices /myoor euh seez /, murexes. 1. any marine gastropod of the genus Murex, common in tropical seas, certain species of which yield the royal purple dye valued by the ancients. 2. a shell used as a trumpet, as in… …   Universalium

  • Murex — Venus Ve nus, n. [L. Venus, eris, the goddess of love, the planet Venus.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified. [1913 Webster] 2. (Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Murex tenuispinus — Venus Ve nus, n. [L. Venus, eris, the goddess of love, the planet Venus.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified. [1913 Webster] 2. (Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Venus's comb — Venus Ve nus, n. [L. Venus, eris, the goddess of love, the planet Venus.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified. [1913 Webster] 2. (Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Venus — Ve nus, n. [L. Venus, eris, the goddess of love, the planet Venus.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified. [1913 Webster] 2. (Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit lying …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”