![Picture](/uploads/2/3/4/3/23436654/7900764.jpg?391)
Australian Trumpet Shell
Syrinx aruanus
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Superfamily:Muricoidea
Family:Turbinellidae
Subfamily:Turbinellinae
The Australian Trumpet Shell Syrinx aruanus is a tropical snail found in the oceans around northern Australia up through New Guinea and Indonesia.
Fun Facts:
1) They reach shell sizes of up to 91 cm (1 yard) in length and 18 kg (over 39 pounds) in weight
2)Unlike many snails the Australian Trumpet Shell is carnivorous. They eat different species of polychaete worms by injecting its long (at least 250 mm, or 9.8 inches) proboscis deep down into their subterranean tubes to reach them.
3) They are hatched and go through a plankton stage at the bottom of the ocean.
They are becoming endangered because they are such a commercial item. People hunt for the shell to sell off. This is sad, because hunting of the snail seems to have had a strong impact on the populations of the species, making large individuals difficult to find in locations where they were formerly numerous. Since they are a species that hatches out into little snails that move along the sea floor (versus snails that have a planktonic stage), when the Australian Trumpet Shell becomes locally extinct in an area it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for it to return to that area again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ozrsqdBNDgU
Citations:
http://dailyorganism.blogspot.com/2011/10/australian-trumpet-shell.html
http://www.iucnredlist.org
http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Molluscs/Gastropods/Marine+snails/Syrinx+-+Worlds+largest+snail
Syrinx aruanus
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Superfamily:Muricoidea
Family:Turbinellidae
Subfamily:Turbinellinae
The Australian Trumpet Shell Syrinx aruanus is a tropical snail found in the oceans around northern Australia up through New Guinea and Indonesia.
Fun Facts:
1) They reach shell sizes of up to 91 cm (1 yard) in length and 18 kg (over 39 pounds) in weight
2)Unlike many snails the Australian Trumpet Shell is carnivorous. They eat different species of polychaete worms by injecting its long (at least 250 mm, or 9.8 inches) proboscis deep down into their subterranean tubes to reach them.
3) They are hatched and go through a plankton stage at the bottom of the ocean.
They are becoming endangered because they are such a commercial item. People hunt for the shell to sell off. This is sad, because hunting of the snail seems to have had a strong impact on the populations of the species, making large individuals difficult to find in locations where they were formerly numerous. Since they are a species that hatches out into little snails that move along the sea floor (versus snails that have a planktonic stage), when the Australian Trumpet Shell becomes locally extinct in an area it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for it to return to that area again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ozrsqdBNDgU
Citations:
http://dailyorganism.blogspot.com/2011/10/australian-trumpet-shell.html
http://www.iucnredlist.org
http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Molluscs/Gastropods/Marine+snails/Syrinx+-+Worlds+largest+snail