Stratum.black
Conus — Conus
Conus — Kerry Matz, National Institute of General Medical Services, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (US)

Shell · Genus

Conus

Cone shells

Conus is the largest genus of marine snails, over 800 species of cone-shaped shells with a narrow aperture and, in life, a venomous harpoon; the textile, geography and glory-of-the-seas cones are the collector classics. Colour pattern, spire shape and locality identify species, and the genus has been split into many subgenera that WoRMS tracks. Fossil cones from the Eocene onward appear in the taxon article.

HabitatTropical and warm-temperate reefs, sand and rubble, intertidal to deep water
RegionsIndo-Pacific, Caribbean, West Africa, Eastern Pacific
FamilyConidae
Authority (WoRMS)Linnaeus, 1758· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Status (WoRMS)accepted· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Extinct (WoRMS)no· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Classification (WoRMS)Animalia › Mollusca › Gastropoda › Neogastropoda › Conidae· WoRMS / MolluscaBase

CITES and protection

No cone shell is CITES-listed (checked September 2026), but the live animals are venomous and several species are locally protected; Conus gloriamaris and other rarities are traded at high prices with locality data.

Care (Byne's disease)

Cones are aragonitic and prone to Byne's disease in oak or unsealed-wood cabinets; store in inert plastic or archival boxes.

Photographs

Conus — Conus gloriamaris
Conus gloriamaris — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHINV), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0
Conus — Conus gloriamaris
Conus gloriamaris — Smithsonian Institution (NMNHINV), Smithsonian Open Access, CC0

Collecting rules

See also

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Conus" (Shell family). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/shells/conus. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-conus,
  title        = {Conus},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/shells/conus}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Shell family article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, worms, wikidata, commons, smithsonian. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.