What kind of sea animal made this shell?

Where does it live?

What does it eat?

Answers:

What kind of sea animal made this shell?

This shell was made by a Ramose murex, a type of large sea snail. Murex are mollusks, and are invertebrates like their mollusk cousins, the clam and the octopus. The Murex was given its name by Aristotle, and was well-known in the ancient world as the source of a special dye.

Where does it live? What does it eat?

The Ramose murex lives in waters around the West Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Polynesia and Australia, as well as around Southern Africa and Madagascar. It is a carnivore, and its diet consists of bivalves and other gastropods.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• Murex Snails
• 5 Sensational Sea Snail Species
• Getting a good look at deep-sea snails
• WoRMS taxon details: Chicoreus ramosus
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Chicoreus ramosus images

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