Dear Ron and others those who dare to sacrifice nice shells to examine inside.

I believe that cowries produce teeth at the final phase of their growth, so that you may not
be able to expect to find any in the shell interior. It is a rather different story for
Murex pecten, that we raised from eggs to now 3 years age in the aquarium, as it
dissolved those spines that interfered with its growth (1/3 whorl at once for each growth).
This also may produce smooth shell interior in Murex.

I examined the book by W. A. Conklin: Nature's Art (The Inner and Outer Dimensions
of the Shell) published by Univ. S. Carolina Press (1985) and checked the X-ray photo
of Cassis cornuta (p. 82). Yes, you can see the teeth and knobs inside the shell, though
it is hard to tell which ones are inside or not from the photo. The interior of volutes may be
interesting to see, because their X-ray photographs indicated the teeth deep inside.

Masashi Yamaguchi