Triton (gastropod)

Triton (gastropod)

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Triton is the common name given in particular to a number of species of very large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the genus Charonia. The name "triton" is also often applied as part of the common name, to much smaller sea snails of other genera within the same family, Ranellidae.

Tritons are named after the Greek god Triton, who was the son of Poseidon, god of the sea.

The shell of the giant triton Charonia tritonis (Linnaeus, 1758), which lives in the Indo-Pacific faunal zone, can grow to over half a metre (20 inches) in length.

One slightly smaller but still very large species, Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816), lives in the western Atlantic, from North Carolina to Brazil.

Read more about Triton (gastropod):  Distribution, Life Habits, Feeding Behavior, Human Use, Species and Subspecies

Famous quotes containing the word triton:

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