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José H. Leal

Shell of the Week: The Knobbed Triton

Also known as the Knobbly Triton, Gutturnium muricinum, is one among many triton species (family Cymatiidae) found along the east coast of Florida and the Florida Keys. (The genus Gutturnium is *monotypic*, i.e., it includes only one species.) The Knobbed Triton is also present in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico throughout the Caribbean south to Brazil. They can grow up to 75 mm (about three inches). Triton snails have larvae that spend weeks, sometimes months, living in open water. The protoconch, seen in the photos below as the darker “tip” at the shell apex, is the larval shell preserved as part of the adult, fully grown shell.


Gutturnium muricinum from Coral Cove, Florida. Illustration by James F. Kelly.

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