Conidae

Conidae is a family of minute to quite large sea snails. They are marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea. Their beautiful shells are highly collectible.Sullivan B.N. 2009. Collecting cone shells: special handling required. The Right Blue. 

The snails within this family are sophisticated predatory animals.Piper R. 2007. Extraordinary animals: an encyclopedia of curious and unusual animals, Greenwood Press. The snails have eyes, and are active hunters.Sullivan B.N. 2009. Muck-diving. The Right Blue.  They immobilize prey with a modified radular tooth. The tooth delivers venom with neurotoxins; it is launched out of the snail's mouth in a harpoon-like action.

There have been many suggested changes to the classification of cone shells, and the details are still under investigation. The very large genus Conus has 600 species, and there are six other subfamilies.

 References 

Category:Gastropods