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| Cone snails Temporal range: Eocene–Recent | |
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| Geography cone, Conus geographus | |
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| Conus species eating a small fish, in Guam | |
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| Subfamily: | Coninae |
| Genus: | Conus Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
| Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758 | |
Conus is a large genus of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, with the common names of cone snails, cone shells or cones.
Shaped, as the name suggests, like a cone, many species have colorful patterning on the shell surface. Conus snails are mostly tropical in distribution. Geologically speaking, the genus is known from the Eocene to the present.
All Conus snails are venomous. They hunt and eat marine worms or molluscs. The larger ones prey on small bottom-dwelling fish. Cone snails use a hypodermic-like modified radula tooth and a venom gland to attack and paralyze their prey before eating it. The tooth is sometimes likened to a dart or a harpoon. It is barbed and can be extended some distance out from the mouth of the snail, at the end of the proboscis. They can "sting" humans, and should be handled with great care or preferably not at all.
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