A Shell That Can Kill You
Pick up a cone snail on a beach and it will not wait. The animal fires a hollow, harpoon-like tooth called a radula through its flesh, through yours, and injects venom in under a second. There is no antidote. In documented fatalities, death from respiratory paralysis has followed within hours. The Conus geographus species, the geography cone, carries a lethality rate high enough that marine biologists estimate roughly 70% of recorded human stings from that species alone have been fatal when untreated. These animals live across Indo-Pacific waters, including along India's Andaman coast and in the shallow reefs off Lakshadweep, sitting camouflaged in sand, looking like collector's prizes.
