Charonia tritonis

Charonia tritonis

Triton's trumpet, Giant triton

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Charonia tritonis

Charonia tritonis, common name the Triton's trumpet or the giant triton, is a species of very large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Charoniidae, the tritons. Reaching up to two feet (or 60 cm) in shell length this is one of the biggest mollusks in the coral reef.

Distribution

Geography

This species is found throughout the Indo-Pacific Oceans, Red Sea included.

Habits and Lifestyle

Diet and Nutrition

C. tritonis is one of the few animals to feed on the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. Occasional plagues of this large and destructive starfish have killed extensive areas of coral on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the western Pacific reefs. The triton has been described as tearing the starfish to pieces with its file-like radula.

Population

References

1. Charonia tritonis Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charonia_tritonis

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