Continuing from the previous two posts …
Carnivorous shells abound, but some herbivores are big and tough enough to survive – for instance, turbans. The turban below (left, Turbo militaris) is about the same size as its nemesis (right, Australian red triton, Charonia lampas) and has a massively thick, protective shell. So does the triton.
Not exactly friends - the right would eat the left
And to show the actual sizes …
Big imperial turban (left) and big Australian red triton (right)
Below, the triton animal emerges … a robust animal powers that strong, heavy shell. You can see the ‘eyes’ – light/dark detectors. Just below the bottom ‘eye’, you can see the groove in the shell through which the siphon emerges to detect the world.
Red triton emerging
Another red triton on the hunt – the siphon is at the top. It was unusual to see so many big ones on one day – we saw about seven.
Another red triton on the hunt
Carnivorous shells can eat other carnivorous shells … it’s a shell-eat-shell world.
Typical size difference between red triton (left) and Spengler's triton (right) - who's going to eat whom?
The shell below was tiny (about 1.5 cm) and pretty – another carnivore, but the big turbans are safe from this one.
Too small to threaten the big ones
All in all, it was a busy day for both creatures and amateur naturalists on the subtropical east coast of Australia.
Beaut view of that operculum on the turban. When you have two tritons facing off, I spose that’d be the Clash of the Tritons…