The snail with a quick tongue
Many land snails are gentle herbivores which feed on a leaf using their radula, which is a tiny tongue lined with thousands of microscopic ‘teeth’ that scrape up leaf matter. The marine cousin of these snails, specifically, the Hebrew cone snail (Conus ebraeus) took that humble leaf-grating tongue and transformed it into a deadly, syringe-like venomous harpoon!
Don’t let the pretty checkered shell fool you! This snail hides its harpoon within a flexible structure called the proboscis. When a worm crawls nearby, the snail extends this flexible proboscis, loaded with a harpoon and fires. The barbed tip locks on, instantly flooding the worm’s nervous system with a cocktail of paralyzing neurotoxins. Once the prey is paralyzed, the snail engulfs the worm whole, much like a mouthful of noodles!
If you spot one of these deadly checkered critters on a rocky shore, admire its incredible engineering from a distance, but never pick it up or touch it!