After spotting a beautiful shell, Beckylee Rawls didn't think twice about picking it up to get a closer look. What she never could have imagined was that she was actually holding one of the world ...

Even as cone shells show promise for medicine, however, their survival may be at stake. Collectors gather millions of the animals each year for the decorative shell trade.

Injected into water, it also reduced the movements of fish larvae. There are about 30 recorded instances of people being killed by cone snails, some of which have attractive and collectible shells.

It wasn’t until after the outing that Rawls identified the creature as the cone snail—a predatory gastropod mollusk with enough venom to kill up to 700 people. @beckyleeinoki/TikTok Rawls ...

Becky Lee, an American currently living in Japan, was unaware of the potential danger as she picked up what appeared to be just another beautiful shell to add to her collection – a marbled cone ...

The cone snail’s compound clocks in with a half-life of more than 158 hours (more than six and a half days) after in vitro treatment. That means compared to natural human somatostatin, this ...

In another video she holds up a similar shell, saying: 'Yep, that was me picking up a marbled cone snail – one of the deadliest creatures on Earth. Had no idea.' ...

A cone snail has a cone-shaped shell, a fleshy foot, a head, and tentacles. Cone snails live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Caribbean and Red Seas, and along the coast of Florida. They are ...

Experts are warning summer vacationers to be on the lookout for a hidden flesh-eating beach threat that could kill them within minutes. Hiding inside some seashells could be a cone snail — a ...

COURTESY BOB LEINAU Cone snail shell with worm holes. Another borer that really is a worm is the bone-eating snot flower, a gelatinous creature with plume-bearing gills and rootlike tendrils that ...

Unlike their modern relatives, the 4.8-6.6 million-year-old fossil cone shells often appear white and without a pattern when viewed in regular visible light. By placing these fossils under ...

University of York. "Cone snails are for life, not just at Christmas." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 December 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2013 / 12 / 131223181344.htm>.