Parents wanted to show the cool snail they found while on a vacation to Egypt
by u/Nico038cc in OopsThatsDeadly
Snails aren’t usually a creature most people think of as something to be avoided on pain of death, but at least one species should be avoided at all costs: the cone snail. That little guy has enough venom in its little body to paralyze and kill around 700 people. And recently, an unknowing and very, very lucky person filmed themselves handling one. According to a Reddit post, the Redditor’s parents just “wanted to show the cool snail they found while on a vacation to Egypt.”
Cone snails aren’t actively looking to paralyze and kill people, but people are often a little too curious for their own good. Since many venomous creatures have visible marks to warn potential predators that they’re packing a mean punch (that’s a feature called aposematism, if you’re interested), we’ve learned to avoid things like coral snakes and poison dart frogs. A good rule of thumb if you don’t know if an animal is venomous is this: just don’t touch it. But cone snails? They don’t advertise the fact that they’re super deadly. They don’t have super bright colors like a poisonous frog, or pretty neon rings like certain kinds of snakes. If you were to lock one in a room with you, it would make sense for it to say that old line. “I’m not locked in here with you,” it would laugh. “You’re locked in here with me.”
Cone snails carry a complicated mix of neurotoxins that paralyze their prey almost instantly. And while their prey is a lot smaller than a human, those neurotoxins do the same to us. It might take a little longer, but you don’t want to find out how much longer.
Cone snails mostly just lie around in the sand, waiting for something delicious to swim by. Then, they shoot it with a crazy little harpoon, wait for that potent venom to kick in, and then eat it. It’s not exactly a harpoon, although it does look like one. It’s a modified tooth called a radula. There are a ton of different kinds of cone snails, and all of them pack on hell of a punch.
So, if you happen to see one of them somewhere in your oceanic investigations, don’t be like the person in the video posted in a sub-Reddit called r/OopsThatsDeadly. Just leave it alone.
