>

Personally I think that this dentition has indeed an "ensemble" of
purposes. Other shell shapes get explained by time. When snorkeling in
Baja California, I went down to check a "dead fish" twelve meters
deep. When arriving there, I saw a nice Murex (I think elenensis it's
called), which explained at once the copying of the genus Murex of a
dead fish. I'm pretty sure that these Murex emit substances to attract
molluscs, which are then catched, even "caged" under the spines.
Especially Nasarius and Buccinids are fond of dead fish. At the same
time the Murex gets super protection from the spiens. We know little
about all this, and all these things are more a guess than science of
course, to science to work it out and prove things. Conus use also
substances to attract fishes, several times we photographed gobies
dancing around the snout of C. striatus.... which explains how a slow
slug can harpoon a fast fish. Again to science to prove that. A latest
observation in shell shapes is that Bursa breeding their eggs develop
a much larger columellar shield than the non breeding ones. This is
not visible in cowries. At the moment of their breeding these develop
a giant foot to cover the eggs.
So much to observe, even if not scientific, I think most will prove
correct by science later.

Guido

www.poppe-images.com
to see the fish around the Conus striatus

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