@article{ref1,
title="Conus envenomation of humans: in fact and fiction",
journal="Toxins (Basel)",
year="2018",
author="Kohn, Alan J.",
volume="11",
number="1",
pages="e11010010-e11010010",
abstract="Prominent hallmarks of the widely distributed, mainly tropical marine snail genus <i>Conus</i> are: (1) its unusually high species diversity; it is the largest genus of animals in the sea, with more than 800 recognized species; and (2) its specialized feeding behavior of overcoming prey by injection with potent neurotoxic, paralytic venoms, and swallowing the victim whole. Including the first report of a human fatality from a <i>Conus</i> sting nearly 350 years ago, at least 141 human envenomations have been recorded, of which 36 were fatal. Most <i>Conus</i> species are quite specialized predators that can be classified in one of three major feeding guilds: they prey exclusively or nearly so on worms, primarily polychaete annelids, other gastropods, sometimes including other <i>Conus</i> species, or fishes. These differences are shown to relate to the severity of human envenomations, with the danger increasing generally in the order listed above and a strong likelihood that all of the known human fatalities may be attributable solely to the single piscivorous species <i>C. geographus</i>.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2072-6651",
doi="10.3390/toxins11010010",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11010010"
}