MUREX PECTEN
( VENUS COMB MUREX )
CLEAR RESIN ENCAPSULATION

One of the most delicate and exquisite shells of the world belongs to the Venus Comb Murex (Murex pectin) a predatory snail which hunts in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. The snail is covered by over one hundred tapered spines which protect it from predators and support the creature (in the fashion of a snowshoe) when it traverses soft muds.

The Venus Comb Murex hunts small mollusks, tunicates, worms, and crustaceans. When one handles the delicate 15 cm long shell it is strange to imagine that it belonged to a fearsome hunter. The Venus Comb Murex is a member of the Murexes, medium to large gastropods within the family Muricidae. Murexes were described by Aristotle who used the exact same name for them.

The shell of this snail has an extremely long siphonal canal. The siphon is a long, hose pipe thing used to draw in water for respiration and it's also armed with chemosensory organs to sniff out food. It's a nose, basically.

The siphonal canal is a bit of shell that protects the soft, fleshy siphon from attack. At rest, the snail buries itself just below the surface of the sandy sea floor, armoured siphon sticking up into the water.When it smells something tasty, the Venus Comb Murex can emerge.

This sea snail is a predator and uses its large siphonal canal to hunt for smaller molluscs like clams and barnacles. To reach the soft parts of its prey, the Venus comb murex excretes a softening fluid onto the shell of its victim and then scrapes at it with the hundreds of tiny teeth that line its mouth.