If you want to say that the style is the least likely to be eliminated by the trend, it must be retro style. Every few years, the retro trend sweeps the globe again.
At the bottom of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, inhabited by such a creature that is always at the forefront of the trend, it wears a retro checkerboard pattern that has made it loved since its discovery. This is the marble taro snail (Conus marmoreus).
Marble taro snail from the collection of the Netherlands Centre for Natural Biodiversity. Photo: Naturalis Biodiversity Center
A living marble taro snail is preying on a Monetaria caputserpentis. Image: NOAA
With the famous Sea Glory Taro Snail (C. Gloriamaris) compared to the ground taro snail (a.k.a killer taro snail, C. geographus), the marble taro snail is not an "out of the circle" species. But in fact, it has a great place in the taro world, because it is the first taro snail in the world to be officially described (the descriptor is the "father of taxonomy" Carl Linnaeus), and thus becomes a model species of the genus Taro snail.
Sea Glory Taro Snail (left) and Ground Taro Snail (right). Image: Almed2/wikimedia
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the mystery of the left-handed snail </h1>
Widely distributed in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, marble taro snails live on the seafloor at depths of 1 to 20 meters, lurking in the sand near coral reefs. Although most taro snails have the habit of "night owl" that lies out of the day and night, the marble taro snail does not follow the flow and is also very active during the day.
In appearance, the marble taro snail has the typical characteristics of the taro snail - it looks like a taro: its conch tower is not very developed, the flattened spire has nodules, the edges are straight, and the whole resembles an upside-down cone, which is also the origin of the English name "Cone snail" of the taro snail. The shell of the adult marble taro snail is between 3 and 15 centimeters long, and the shell is very thick, and its heavy weight can be felt in the hand.
Marble taro snail. Image: H. Zell / wikimedia
Of course, its biggest feature is the iconic mesh pattern, the dark undertone is dotted with tent-like white spots, with a strong sense of design. The shape pattern of the marble taro snail is generally the same, but the color scheme is very varied, the base color is from black to orange, the aperture is from white to pink, and it has its favorite look.
Marble taro snails in different colors. Image: Almed2/wikimedia
The outer layer of the marble taro snail is usually covered with a light brown transparent shell skin, which is slightly yellowed in its natural state, like "old yellow teeth". Image: kienthuc.net.vn
Whatever the color scheme, the unique pattern of the marble taro snail has captured the hearts of generations of collectors, and its collection history can be traced back to two thousand years ago. It is said that a collection of marble taro snails was dug up in the ruins of Pompeii, and the famous European painter Rembrandt also painted a sketch for it.
Rembrandt's Marble Taro. Image: Rembrandt van Rijn (1650)
However, looking closely at this painting, do you find anything wrong?
Yes, it turned out to be a left-handed marble taro snail! (When the tower is facing upwards, the opening of the shell is on the left side of the snail body, not the right side.) ）
In fact, for most snails, left rotation is a very rare phenomenon, and left-handed marble taro snails are even rarer. Some speculate that it is a rare left-handed snail, and Rembrandt painted it precisely to highlight its preciousness. It has also been suggested that this is not a left-handed snail at all, but a painting that has been flipped. It is said that when painting in the 16th century, painters often used lenses to enlarge the objects of the painting and project them onto the canvas, perhaps this process led to the flip of the picture. Others believe that this is the result of modern computer technology processing, or just an imposter creation.
After all, these are only the speculations of posterity, and the truth is probably only known to Rembrandt himself.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > seabed anesthesiologist </h1>
Beneath its ornate exterior, marble snails hide frightening abilities. There are 700 to 1,000 species in the world, almost all of which are poisonous, and none of them are "vegetarians".
According to the diet, the snail can be divided into three categories: fish-eating, snail-eating and insecticidal. Among them, the fish-eating taro snail is the most toxic and the greatest threat to humans, such as the ground taro snail (killer taro snail), and the "sin snail" of the 36 cases of taro snail fatalities that have been reported worldwide is almost all of it. The marble taro snail belongs to the second category, the snail-eating snail, which feeds on other snails, even other taro snails.
In fact, the feeding habits of the snail can be guessed from the shape of the shell. The food of the fish-eating taro snail is larger, and this type of snail can even prey on small fish of its own body length, and its shell mouth is much wider than that of snails/insects. Snails/insects are less aggressive and have to be increased in defense level accordingly, so their shells are thicker.
Different kinds of snails. Guess their feeding habits. Photo: Cheng Li, et al. / Marine Drugs（2018）
There are many rumors on the Internet that the marble taro snail is the most poisonous taro snail in the world, such as "a drop of marble taro snail venom can kill 20 people", "marble taro snail is one of the ten most poisonous creatures in the world" and so on. However, from the perspective of eating habits, the toxicity of marble taro snails may be overestimated.
Kohn et al. found that even rats were able to tolerate the venom of marble snails to some extent, depending on the location and dose of the injection. And so far, only one incident of marble taro snail injury has been reported in 1877 (the results are unknown). Therefore, I am afraid that the ground-striped taro snail is more worthy of the title of "snail poisoning king".
That being said, the marble taro snail is still an excellent hunter because it is proficient in a set of must-kill skills - "release poison arrows". Like other snails, the snout tube of the marble snail contains a highly specialized harpoon-shaped tongue. When preying, it first extends a slender snout tube to probe the direction of the food; after approaching the target, it shoots through the target's skin with its tongue at a very fast speed, and the venom is injected into the target, causing it to be paralyzed for a short time and lose its mobility. The whole process is so fast that it is almost impossible to see with the naked eye, and even the subject of predation is often unconsciously in a coma - in a way, this is also a kind of "euthanasia", right?
Marble taro sticks out its teeth and tongue to prey on it. Image: GuamSam/youtube
The venom of taro snails contains 50 to 200 active polypeptides, and the variety is very rich, no wonder there is a nickname for "cocktail toxin". The toxin composition of different types of taro snails is very different, and the toxin composition of the same species of taro snails varies due to different sea areas; even if it is the same taro snail, the venom composition of each shot is not completely consistent. Some scholars believe that the composition of taro snail toxin mainly depends on the prey, it seems that the small taro snail is actually a precise killer who knows how to "see the vegetables and poison".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > poison and antidote </h1>
The variety and variation of the taro snail toxin give the taro snail an innate killer skill, but to some extent, it may also mean that there are a large number of new drugs hidden under the snail shell.
In the 1980s, Olivera et al. first isolated taro snail toxins from taro snails. Due to its novel structure, unique function and small side effects, taro toxin has attracted more and more attention from biologists and medical scientists. In recent years, the relevant research on the application of taro spirotoxin has made remarkable progress, and a variety of taro toxins have been well used in clinical practice, such as the extensive action of the brocade taro spirotoxin on various physiological targets, specifically acting on various receptor subtypes of acetylcholine receptors and other neurotransmitters, as well as calcium, sodium, potassium and other ion channels. In addition, taro toxin also has broad application prospects in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes, analgesia and other aspects.
"Maybe the taro toxin is a poison and the antidote I'm taking right now." (Mistaken)" Image: Alex Holt /NIST
Finally, and most importantly, even if most species of snails are only as harmful to the human body as bee bites, since most people do not have the ability to identify species, if you see snails in their natural state, do not touch them with your hands! Never touch it with your hands! Never touch it with your hands!
If it's a cone, leave it alone!
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
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