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Cone Snail
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Jul 1, 2025
All about the different types of animals in the world. Marine Life, African animals, land creatures, sea creatures, mammals, ocean. animals, insects, snakes, lions, elephants, spiders, whales, sharks, dolphins, octopus, reef, fish, dangerous creatures, poisonous creatures, ants, animal habitat, birds, cheetah, leopard, jaquar, predators, killer whales
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this is the cone snail it may look
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pretty but it's one of the most deadly
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creatures on the planet its scientific
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name is conis species there are over
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1,000 different types of cone snails
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they can be found in oceans all over the
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world some of them are small enough to
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fit on the tip of your finger now if you
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want to hear something really scary this
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snail shoots venom like a harpoon one
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was a 12-year-old girl from Florida she
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was waiting in the shallow waters of the
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Gulf Coast when she stepped on one of
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these snails another was a 48-year-old
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man from the Philippines he was diving
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off a boat when he accidentally put his
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hand inside a rock crevice where a large
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cone snail latched onto his finger and
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wouldn't let go and a third was a
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33year-old woman from Indonesia she was
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at a beach with her son when she stepped
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on one of these snails but they do kill
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a lot of small sea creatures that float
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past them like plankton and jellyfish
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eyes sometimes they even kill each other
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but that's not why we should be afraid
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of them if you want to learn more about
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the natural world don't forget to
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you see in most cases if you step on one
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of these snails it will inject you with
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a small amount of venom and yes it's
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still dangerous but it's not enough to
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kill you if you wash your foot in cold
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soapy water immediately and get help
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fast you should be fine but there are a
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few cases where the snail manages to
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inject a large amount of venom into the
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victim when that happens things can get
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bad really bad she tried to pull her
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foot out but the snail held on tight
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even though these snails are found in
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oceans all over the world it's very rare
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for them to come in contact with humans
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so don't worry too much just be careful
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if you step on something that looks like
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this it stabbed her with its venomous
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harpoon and injected her with enough
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poison to kill her that's right the
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harpoon is actually a modified tooth and
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when it stabs its prey it injects a
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paralyzing cocktail of chemicals their
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harpoons are so sharp that they can
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pierce through human skin and muscle
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tissue without us even noticing it then
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the pain starts to spread throughout the
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entire body we don't know exactly how
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many different toxins are in conotoxin
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because it's so complex but we do know
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that there are at least two dozen
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different peptides peptides are
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basically chains of amino acids and
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scientists have found that each peptide
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in konotoxin does something different
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some target the brain others target the
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heart but what they all have in common
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is that they paralyze their victims cone
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snails use this paralyzing venom to hunt
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other sea creatures some of their prey
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include fish eels crabs and even other
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snails but it's not just other sea
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creatures that this venom can paralyze
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it can also paralyze human cells in fact
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the venom works so well that doctors
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sometimes extract it from cone snails to
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use as an anesthetic of course they do
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modify it first so that it doesn't kill
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people if the person is not treated
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immediately they will go into shock
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their blood pressure will drop and they
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will stop breathing pretty soon after
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that they will pass away most of the
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time we feel the pain of the sting
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within 5 to 10 minutes then the real
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trouble begins when some of these
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species can kill a human in just a few
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minutes in fact there are several
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recorded attacks of cone snails killing
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people every year these snails don't
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actually chase people they hide in the
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sand or rock crevices and wait for their
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prey to step on them within minutes
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after being stung the victim's muscles
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start to ache and their heart rate
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increases so what exactly is this venom
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made of called konotoxin most of the
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time these snails can't actually kill
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large sea creatures like sharks and
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whales you might be thinking to yourself
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"Wow that sounds terrifying maybe I
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should stay away from the ocean."
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Well good news for you wow that was
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close