Pleuroploca gigantea
| Giant horse conch | |
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| Triplofusus giganteus (Kiener, 1840) in situ, note the orange soft parts | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): |
clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Buccinoidea |
| Family: | Fasciolariidae |
| Genus: | Triplofusus |
| Species: | T. giganteus |
| Binomial name | |
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Triplofusus giganteus (Kiener, 1840) |
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| Synonyms | |
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clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Triplofusus giganteus, previously known as Pleuroploca gigantea, common name the Florida horse conch, is a species of extremely large predatory subtropical and tropical sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Fasciolariidae, the spindle snails, tulip snails and their allies.
Although known as a horse conch, this is not a true conch, as it is not in the family Strombidae.
This species is the largest gastropod in the American waters, and one of the largest univalves in the world.
The animal can retract the soft parts entirely into the shell and close it with the operculum. The soft parts are bright orange in color.
This species shell length can reach 24 inches (60 cm).
The outline of the shell is somewhat fusiform, with a long siphonal canal, and having up to 10 whorls. Its sculpture present several spiral cords and axial ribs, some of which can form knobs on the whorls' shoulders.
The shell color is bright orange in very young individuals. The shell often becomes greyish white to salmon-orange when adult, with a light tan or dark brown periostracum.
This large sea snail is found along the Atlantic coast of the Americas from the U.S. state of North Carolina to the north, to Yucatán in the Gulf of Mexico to the south.
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Wikipedia