Cone Shells – Poison Tongued

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We’ve all heard of putting our foot in our mouths; well, cone shells do it all the time, even though their so-called foot is poisonous! I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“Well, cone shells; if you want to put them on a scientific term, they’re a gastropod. Now, gastropod means foot on mouth in Latin, and cone shells are more characteristic because they’re cone shell shaped, a bit like an ice cream cone.”

Jon Paul Bingham is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Clarkson University. He says that cone shells come in all sizes, and that what serves as their foot might also be called their tongue.

“The family is known as toxoglossa, which in Latin and Greek means poisonous tongue.

Now some cone shells feed upon worms, some eat fish, others eat mollusks. They all use poison.

“Cone shells basically have venom to immobilize their prey rapidly. By immobilizing the prey rapidly, they can basically ensure they will get a meal. The fish or the prey will not escape, and that basically will cause no harm to them in the process of them either capturing the animal or digesting the animal. Otherwise, unwanted attention from scavengers may cause it either to lose the prey or actually lose its own life. As a cone shell has envenomated its prey, certain structures and mechanisms in the water are transmitted. This brings a lot of other predators and scavengers to the localized area, and if the cone shell has not immobilized its prey quickly enough, it may put itself in particular danger as being a meal or mistakenly as a meal by another predator or scavenger.”

The effectiveness of coneshell venom and its complexity makes them a subject of great interest to pharmaceutical companies. We”ll hear more in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the by the National Science Foundation.

Cone Shells - Poison Tongued

Cone shells use a powerful venom to immobilize their prey
Air Date:06/14/2005
Scientist:
Transcript:

music
We've all heard of putting our foot in our mouths; well, cone shells do it all the time, even though their so-called foot is poisonous! I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

"Well, cone shells; if you want to put them on a scientific term, they’re a gastropod. Now, gastropod means foot on mouth in Latin, and cone shells are more characteristic because they're cone shell shaped, a bit like an ice cream cone."

Jon Paul Bingham is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Clarkson University. He says that cone shells come in all sizes, and that what serves as their foot might also be called their tongue.

"The family is known as toxoglossa, which in Latin and Greek means poisonous tongue.

Now some cone shells feed upon worms, some eat fish, others eat mollusks. They all use poison.

"Cone shells basically have venom to immobilize their prey rapidly. By immobilizing the prey rapidly, they can basically ensure they will get a meal. The fish or the prey will not escape, and that basically will cause no harm to them in the process of them either capturing the animal or digesting the animal. Otherwise, unwanted attention from scavengers may cause it either to lose the prey or actually lose its own life. As a cone shell has envenomated its prey, certain structures and mechanisms in the water are transmitted. This brings a lot of other predators and scavengers to the localized area, and if the cone shell has not immobilized its prey quickly enough, it may put itself in particular danger as being a meal or mistakenly as a meal by another predator or scavenger."

The effectiveness of coneshell venom and its complexity makes them a subject of great interest to pharmaceutical companies. We''ll hear more in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the by the National Science Foundation.