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Snakehead Cowrie
Monetaria caputserpentis
Monetaria caputserpentis, common name the serpent's-head cowry or snakehead cowry, is a species of cowry, a sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
From the article Monetaria caputserpentis on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The basic color of the shell is reddish-brown, with many whitish dots on the top of the dorsum, which sometimes shows a clear longitudinal line. The underside is light beige. Frequently these shells are sold with a purple top, which is achieved by dipping the dorsum in acid.
Range & habitat
This species occurs in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, tropical Indo-West Pacific, Australia and the Philippines. This sea snail lives on corals, rock reefs and rocky shores from the intertidal zone down to depths of 200 m.
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Monetaria caputserpentis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 506307.