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

Gastropod

Conus

Cone shell

Conus, the cone snail, appears in the Eocene and is a common fossil in the Claiborne Group of Texas and Alabama and in the Pliocene shell beds of Florida and Virginia, where UV light reveals the original colour patterns on white shells. Fossil cones are cheap and a bridge between shell collecting and paleontology. Modern cone shells are covered in the shell family article.

PhylumMollusca
ClassGastropoda
OrderNeogastropoda
FamilyConidae
GroupGastropod
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorLinnaeus 1758· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Mollusca › Gastropoda › Neogastropoda › Conidae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)113–0 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences2401· Paleobiology Database
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

Elsewhere

Cite this article

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

@misc{stratum-conus,
  title        = {Conus},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/conus}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, worms, wikidata, commons, nhm. 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.