Atlantic Deer Cowry
Macrocypraea cervus (Linnaeus, 1771)
The Atlantic Deer Cowrie is one of the prized shells on S. Hutchinson Island beaches. I've been fortunate enough to find about 20 complete or nearly complete specimen.
Atlantic Deer Cowrie (S. Hutchinson Island 2121)
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Macrocypraea cervus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily: Cypraeoidea
Family: Cypraeidae
Subfamily: Cypraeinae
Genus: Macrocypraea
Species: M. cervus
Binomial name
Macrocypraea cervus
(Linnaeus, 1771)
Synonyms
Cypraea cervus (Linnaeus, 1771)
Cypraea bifasciata Gmelin, 1791
Cypraea oculata Gmelin, 1791
Cypraea meleagris Röding, 1798
Cypraea cervina Lamarck, 1822
Cypraea jousseaumei Vayssière, 1905
Macrocypraea peilei Schilder, 1932
Macrocypraea cervus, common name the Atlantic deer cowry, is a species of large sea snail, a very large cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Distribution
This species is mainly distributed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean including the Caribbean Sea, and in the waters off South Carolina, Florida, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and the Bermudas.
Description
Giant Macrocypraea cervus – Florida
This species is one of the largest cowries. It is quite similar in shape and colour to Macrocypraea cervinetta, but it is much larger. The maximum recorded shell length is 190 millimetres (7.5 in), while minimum length is about 40 millimetres (1.6 in).
The shell is elongated, its basic colour is light brown, with small whitish ocellated spots on the dorsum, like a young fawn (hence the Latin name cervus, meaning 'deer'). Juveniles have no spots. The dorsum also shows a few transverse clearer bands, and a longitudinal line where the two edges of the mantle meet. The apertural teeth are dark brown. The mantle of the living cowry is dark greyish and completely covered in short fringes.
Habitat
Living cowries can mainly be encountered under corals and rocks in shallow waters at a maximum depth of 35 m. They feed on algae.
References
Welch J. J. (2010) - "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence" - Simon Joly, McGill University, Canada
External links
WoRMS