Kingdom Animalia Class Gastropoda Family Cypraeidae Scientific name Lyncina leviathan | Phylum Mollusca Superfamily Cypraeoidea Genus Lyncina Rank Species | |
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Similar Lyncina, Lyncina carneola, Lyncina sulcidentata, Lyncina schilderorum, Lyncina ventriculus | ||
Lyncina leviathan is a species of tropical sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Contents
Description
The shells of these cowries reach on average 60 millimetres (2.4 in) of length, with a minimum size of 22 millimetres (0.87 in) and a maximum size of 98 millimetres (3.9 in). The dorsum surface of these elongated, smooth and shiny shells is pink-salmon, crossed by darker bands. The base is whitish or pale pinkish or pale brown, with a long and wide aperture with several teeth. In the living cowries the mantle is brownish, almost transparent and well developed, with external antennae and several sensorial tree-shaped papillae. This species is superficially similar to Lyncina carneola.
Distribution
Lyncina leviathan is common throughout the tropical Indian (East Africa, Red Sea) and the central Pacific Oceans, in the sea along Thailand, Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii.
Habitat
They inhabit rocky intertidal areas and caves in very shallow water, but they can reach up to 40 metres (130 ft) of depth.
Subspecies
Three subspecies are known: