- Conus
- A genus of shellfish that inhabits the shores of some South Pacific islands. Several species, C. geographus, C. textilis, C. aulicus, C. tulipa, and C. marmoreus are poisonous, their sting or spine causing acute pain, edema, numbness, spreading paralysis, and sometimes coma and death.
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co·nus 'kō-nəs n1) cap a very large genus (the type of the family Conidae) of tropical marine snails comprising the cones and including many harmless forms and a few chiefly in the southwest Pacific that are highly dangerous because they are capable of biting with the radula and injecting a paralytic venom that has been known to cause death in humans* * *
Co·nus (koґnəs) a genus of marine snails (cones) of the family Conidae. C. geograґphicus (the geographic cone) and C. textiґle (the textile cone) are carnivorous species that live in tropical oceans and kill fish by punching a hole with a proboscis and injecting poison; occasionally humans have been killed in the same manner.
Medical dictionary. 2011.