The textile cone snail is a beautiful but dangerous creature. Its venom can paralyze or even kill. Scientists are studying the venom's unique toxins. These toxins may lead to new painkillers and ...

When it comes to research on venom and converting it into useful drugs, studies involving exotic snakes or brightly colored frogs seem to attract the most attention. However, one of the most promising ...

Cone snails have inspired humans for centuries. Coastal communities have often traded their beautiful shells like money and put them in jewelry. Many artists, including Rembrandt, have featured them ...

If you think all snails are cute, harmless creatures, you haven’t met the cone snail. The sea dweller lives underwater and preys on fish, worms, and other gastropod mollusks. Snails don’t have claws, ...

Scientists already know that the venom of cone snails, which prowl the ocean floor for a fish dinner, contains compounds that can be adapted as pharmaceuticals to treat chronic pain, diabetes and ...

As if drowning weren't enough, there are so many ways the ocean will end your life. Add to the lethal list of box jelly fish, blue ringed octopus, fugu and the always popular great white shark, the ...

Conotoxins—the chains of amino acids found in the venom of a cone snail—are medical marvels. In 2003 psychiatrist and environmentalist Eric Chivian of Harvard University described these sea creatures ...

Snails seem like slow, unassuming animals until you meet the cone snail. This mollusk packs a punch as one of the most predatory and venomous creatures crawling the seafloor. This YouTube video shows ...