Marine snails
Marine snails form the dominant component of molluscan faunas throughout the world’s oceans. Although families such as the cowries, cone snails and murex snails may be the best known due to their attractive shells and often bright colours, large numbers of ecologically important species are either drab, or small to microscopic in size. In Moreton Bay the vast majority of marine snails are predatory, feeding on worms, barnacles, other molluscs or even sponges, and several species (e.g. dog whelks) are scavengers. Sand creepers and mud whelks feed on the detritus lining the surface of sandy or muddy sediments while groups such as limpets and many top snails feed predominantly on algae.
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Marine snails
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Name:
Amethyst Olive
Summary:
The Amethyst Olive is one of the commonest and most widespread of the olive snail family (Olividae). This species is found buried in subtidal sandy areas especially associated with coral reefs and lagoons in subtropical and tropical Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Banded Helmet
Summary:
The Banded Helmet is one of the more common species of the Helmet snail family (Cassidae) and is most often seen washed up as dead shells or shell pieces. It is found in subtropical and tropical Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Cart-rut Whelk
Summary:
The Cart-rut Whelk is instantly identified by its deeply grooved shell sculpture (like the marks left by a cart in mud). This species lives exclusively in high energy rocky shorelines or platforms, often at or just below the tideline. It is found on the eastern and southern coasts of Australia and also New Zealand.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Common Violet Snail
Summary:
The Common Violet Snail is a thin-shelled marine snail that lives out its entire life cycle floating on the surface of the ocean, but often seen washed up on beaches after strong winds. It is found worldwide including both tropical and temperate Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Fox Dove Snail
Summary:
The Fox Dove Snail is well known for its bold and often complex shell colouration. The animals are mostly carnivorous, but some species have secondarily become herbivorous. It is found in subtropical and tropical Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Geography Cone
Summary:
The Geography Cone is a large species of cone snail with the shell reaching up to about 120 mm long. Geography Cones live on sand and rubble, under rocks and coral in the intertidal and subtidal zones. They are found from north WA to southern Queensland, and are widely distributed throughout the Indo-West Pacific.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Giant Triton
Summary:
The Giant or Trumpet Triton is one of the largest snails, reaching a length of 50 cm. Several island cultures use the shells as ceremonial trumpets. This species occurs throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Giant Whelk or Australian False Trumpet
Summary:
The Giant Whelk is the world’s largest snail. This enormous marine gastropod can grow to a shell length of 70 cm. They are predatory snails and feed on large tube-dwelling polychaete worms. It occurs from the intertidal zone down to 50 metres water depth and has a range across the northern half of the Australian coastline extending into southern New Guinea and Indonesia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Girdled Periwinkle
Summary:
The Girdled Periwinkle is striking, varying from yellow to brown, orange or pink. At low tide these molluscs 'glue' their shells to the bark or leaves of mangrove trees to stop themselves from drying out. This species is distributed from Botany Bay, New South Wales, around northern Australia to Exmouth Gulf, WA.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Gold-ring Cowrie
Summary:
The Gold-ring Cowrie grows only to about 30 mm long, and is abundant on eel grass flats in sandy-mud or sand, from the intertidal to the shallow subtidal zones, and in pools on ocean reef platforms. It is common across northern Australia and throughout the Indian and West Pacific Oceans.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Jukes' Keyhole Limpet
Summary:
Jukes' Keyhole Limpet is one of the most common marine snails along the northern coast of Australia. It has strong ribbing and is mostly associated with subtidal rocky reefs and rock platforms.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Leaden Sand Snail
Summary:
The Leaden Sand Snail is one of the largest, most common sand snails found on sand-and mud-flats along the eastern and southern coasts of Australia. It produces large crescent-shaped jelly-like egg masses.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Lined Nerite
Summary:
The Lined Nerite is characterised by its finely grooved shell. This species of Nerite snail lives in association with mangrove trees. It is found in Tropical Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Lord Valentia's Cowrie
Summary:
Lord Valentia's Cowrie is even rarer than the Golden Cowrie and often not seen outside of specialist collections. It is found from the Philippines to Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Military Turban
Summary:
The Military Turban is one of the larger species of its family (Turbinidae), growing to approximately 100 mm in shell length and is frequently seen subtidally by divers, sometimes sporting encrusting worm tubes or algal growths. It is found in Eastern Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Mud Whelks
Summary:
The Hercules Club Mud Whelk is one of the most abundant larger-sized marine snails in Queensland. Its range extends from Cairns in north Queensland along the Queensland coast south to Tasmania. The Australian Mud Whelk commonly occurs with the Hercules Club Mud Whelk, and the juvenile stages of the two species can often be confused.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Purple-mouthed Kookaburra Whelk
Summary:
The Purple-mouthed Kookaburra Whelk is so named because of its striking profile resemblance to a perched kookaburra and the purple tinge around the aperture. In reality it is actually a species of triton - Family Cymatiidae. The species is distributed across the Indo-West Pacific.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Pyramid Periwinkle
Summary:
The Pyramid Periwinkle is one of several periwinkle species that commonly live on our rocky shores. It grows to about 20 mm in length, is very common in the high intertidal zone, and ranges from southern Queensland around southern Australia to Fremantle, WA.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Red-mouthed Banded Whelk
Summary:
The Red-mouthed Banded Whelk is a small species of predatory snail that may be found under large rocks and dead coral slabs from intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats to 15 m depth. It occurs in subtropical and tropical Australia.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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Name:
Red-mouthed Stromb
Summary:
The Red-mouthed Stromb is one of the most abundant and widespread of the Indo-Pacific stromb species. This species can be very common at certain muddy-sand, seagrass and lagoonal localities and is a prized food in many parts of Melanesia, and hence harvested commercially.
Subject categories:
Molluscs, Gastropods, Marine snails
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